Muggle School
by verita dea
Summary: After dragging Harry into their bet, the wizarding trio head off to attend a muggle school with the twins as guardians. They soon realise that muggle high school isn't all it's cracked up to be...
1. The bet

"Aw, come on Hermione. Just a hint. Not everyone is as smart as you."

"No. You should be doing your own work Ronald. I'm not going to do it for you."

"No one said you'd be doing it for me!"

"No one ever says that, and yet I end up doing the majority of it"

Harry tried to block out his friends' argument and concentrate on his own work. They were the only ones in the Gryffindor common room, everyone was outside. It was the perfect winter day. The snowfall was gentle, and it wasn't too cold outside. He wouldn't have minded being inside either. But he had to put up with Ron and Hermione's bickering, as well as homework. He sighed and looked out the window. Perhaps a tiny break wouldn't hurt.

"Hey," he said "why don't we go outside for a bit.?" Hermione glared at him. Ron nodded and yawned, throwing his parchment onto the ground.

"Good idea Harry." he said cheerfully. "We've been working too hard."

Hermione scoffed "working hard?" she said dryly. "Ron, you haven't written anything in the last half hour,that heading is spelt incorrectly, and you've only got one sentence on your page." She picked up his parchment off the floor. "This is a copy from my work Ron!" she said exasperated "you haven't even bothered to edit. Did you take notes during class?"

"I was going to edit it later" he grumbled " and no I didn't take notes. I couldn't keep up with what she was saying"

"More like you weren't paying attention." Hermione shot back. "Here you can borrow mine. I've written down all the key points of the lesson." she threw a scroll of parchment at him. He unrolled it and found three full pages of script, in miniscule handwriting. Harry looked up and raised an eyebrow.

"Hermione... don't you think that's a bit too much?" he asked. She shrugged.

"And your handwriting is tiny." Ron said, scanning down the page "key points of the lesson" he said sarcastically "more like the whole lesson."

Harry gave up on trying to go outside and dozed off.

"Well, if you don't like my notes deal with it, that's all the help you're getting from me." Hermione said coldly. "Besides, this task isn't even that hard you know. If you just tried by yourself..."

Ron ignored her " Wizardry isn't as easy as that rubbish they teach you in muggle schools."

"Which would explain why I've completed mine and you haven't" Hermione snapped. "Besides, it's not 'junk'. It's just as difficult as what they teach us here."

"Difficult? Counting and reading and writing the alphabet is difficult?" Ron asked sceptically.

"Oh that's rich coming from someone who can't even spell." Hermione retorted. She looked like she was going to explode, but took a deep breath calmed down. "At least Harry can do his homework." she said coldly.

Harry sat up at the mention of his name "Wha?" he said stupidly.

His friends didn't notice him and kept on fighting. "You wouldn't last three weeks in a muggle school." Hermione said to Ron. He gave an indignant growl. "Longer than you'd think" he replied.

Harry rolled his eyes. They were going to either get angry and storm off or ask his opinion. He slowly tried getting out of his chair without them noticing.

"Fine." Hermione said. "After school ends, we'll go to a muggle school during the holidays-"

"Stuck with five year olds? No way!" Ron said. Hermione shook her head.

"Not with five year olds you git. There is something called high school." she continued "anyway, we'll make it somewhere outside of England so then it's fair for both of us. Three weeks in a muggle school, no magic. Deal?"

Ron thought about it for moment. After a while he shrugged. "Three weeks in one of your schools and no magic. Easy. Deal. If I can't survive it, I won't ask you for help with homework ever again."

Hermione smiled. "Good."

"One condition though."

"I'm listening."

"Harry is our judge." The two turned to look at Harry, who'd reached the foot of the stairs. "Damn." he said quietly then turned around.

"You'll judge it for us Harry, won't you?" Hermione asked.

"Like I have a choice" he muttered.

"What was that?" Hermione said a litlle loudly. Harry sighed then nodded. Time to start thinking up excuses.

Ron stretched "Ok. Since that's over and sorted, will you help me with my homework now?"

* * *

Harry trudged slowly down the platform. Another horrible summer. He'd tried to come up with some plausible excuses for why he couldn't go, but Hermione had found a loophole in everyone of them.

"You know Harry, you didn't actually have to come with us, but I'm glad that you are" Ron had said. Harry had mentally kicked himself every day after that.

He sighed. Well, it might be better than staying with the Dursleys. But at least with them, he didn't have to do more school work. A lightbulb went off in his head.

"The Dursleys... why didn't I think of that before?" he said to himself. He met Ron and Hermione and they started hunting for an empty compartment.

"Sorry Ron" Harry said, in a voice that he hoped sounded disappointed. "The Dursleys would never let me go with you." He expected both of them to say something like "Oh what a shame!" but was instead greeted with a smug smile from Hermione.

"Well" she started "I knew how eager you were to come with us" Harry scowled. Ron was bad at perceiving feelings, but Hermione wasn't. She gave him a knowing grin then continued "so I just notified the Dursleys that Hogwarts was allowing students to stay during the summer."

Harry looked incredulous "They'd never believe that."

"Oh they did." Hermione said mysteriously. They found an empy compartment and piled in. Hermione pulled a scroll of parchment from her robes, along with a map and a travel brochure. She handed them to Ron and Harry.

"What's all this?" Ron asked.

Harry turned the brochure over. "Australia?" he said questioningly.

"That's where we're going" Hermione told them. "their semesters are different from ours. We'll be going to Sydney. It'll be winter there, but it's not as cold as the season here. And we'll have to start wearing muggle clothing as soon as we board the plane-"

Ron looked confused "Plane? What's a plane?"

Hermione stared at him for a minute, then shook her head. "I keep forgetting you're not a muggle. Remember, and airplane? They look like metal birds. Here, there's a picture of one on the back." she took the brochure from Harry and handed it to Ron. "You'll have to get used to seeing and using muggle appliances. Like electricity. And they have computer lessons in schools these days." Ron looked lost and Hermione just shrugged. "Don't worry about it now, you'll learn soon enough. Just... don't act like you've never seen any of them before."

"I haven't" Ron replied bluntly.

At that moment, the Weasley twins came into their compartment.

"Hi Harry. Hi Hermione." They said in unison. They sat down on either side of Ron.

"So which country are we going to?" Fred asked. Harry looked at them in bewilderment.

"You don't mean... you're coming with us?" Harry asked. George looked offended.

"Of course we are! You need two responsible people like us to pretend to be your guardians!" he said happily. Ron looked just as surprised as Harry.

"You two are just a year older, you can't be our guardians" Ron said. Both of his brothers nudged him.

"Did you hear that? He said we couldn't be their guardians" George chuckled. "I think someone misses his mummy"

"Aw... poor little Ronnie," Fred teased "and since mummy can't come"

"We're the next best thing!" George finished. Ron still looked sceptical.

"Mum wouldn't let you come" he said in disbelief "she wouldn't..."

"She did! She was more than happy to" George said proudly.

"It will teach us some 'responsiblity.' Looking after our brother and finally growing up" Fred said.

"I doubt it" Ron muttered under his breath.

"So Granger, where are we going?" George asked. She threw him the brochure. Fred snatched it from him.

"Australia?" they said together. Hermione nodded.

"Remember, you're our guardians. I'll take care of the flight business." they nodded.

Ron glared at Hermione. "How come I wasn't told about this, and how come they were clued in about all that muggle stuff before me?"

"You had Harry as your condition. We need people to be our guardians, they're picky about that there, we're going to a day school." Ron still maintained the withering look and Hermione rolled her eyes "would you have rathered Percy then?" Ron's facial expression immediately changed and he sank back into his chair muttering about backstabbers. George pinched one of Ron's cheeks.

"Cheer up Ron" he grinned. "It's not everyday you get to go with your favourite brothers to another country."

"Yes" Fred said nodding his head "we'll have lots of fun too."

Hermione looked at both of them. "Remember, no magic." The twins both wore innocent faces, with wicked grins. She shook her head and sighed.

Harry was starting to like this bet. It would be interesting now that the twins were in on it. He looked out the window and prepared himself for a strange trip.


	2. The wonders of the airport

Hello everyone. Thank you for the reviews :). I forgot to leave an authors note, but if you've read my profile, then you'll know that this was originally an rp idea. So here's your second chapter, hope it's long enough for you.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters.

Harry checked his watch and looked down the queue. The airport was crowded, as usual. Hermione was checking their passports, over and over again. Ron nudged him frequently, pointing to normal objects and asking what they were. Harry sighed in exasperation as he explained what an elevator was.

"Sorry mate," he said "but it's just... you know. I've never seen this stuff before. Oh what's that?" he gestured to a little kid on a seat, who was wearing his fingers out on a gameboy.

"It's a Gameboy SP," Harry said, "it's a game console."

"Console?"

"They're electronic."

"Eklecticity? But they don't have those pluggy wire things"

"It works on batteries"

"What are batteries?"

Harry shook his head. "Get Hermione to explain it to you. I can't." Ron looked a bit disappointed, but refrained from asking anymore questions about muggle appliances. He craned his neck to see above the queue. "Where have Fred and George gone?" he asked. He didn't need to look very far. The twins were in a Duty Free shop, picking up items and putting them down again. Hermione winced.

"Honestly, they're no better than five year olds," she muttered. Her eyes widened in horror when she saw them throwing and catching something that looked very expensive "they're going to break something! Harry, Ron. Could you please get those two out of there? I'll do the check in, just make sure they don't break anything." They went over to the Duty Free shop. Fred and George had stopped playing catch and were now standing in front of a mini DVD player. Ron tapped on the glass encasement.

"That's a laptop thingy right?" he asked "where are the buttons with letters?"

"That's a miniature DVD player" Harry said "it's not a laptop."

"But it looks like one" Ron pointed out.

George wagged a finger at Ron, as one would at a naughty child. "Get with the times Ron" he said in a know it all tone. "It's a high definition, ten centimetre screen DVD player."

"A portable DVD player" Fred added "with recording and playing functions." Ron looked at them in confustion.

"Since when did you know all this stuff about muggles?" he demanded. Fred gave him a pat on the shoulder.

"When you grow up Ron, you'll know too." he said. He winked at Harry. George smothered a chuckle, and they both left the store. Harry read the sign next to the DVD player and smiled.

"How do they know so much more than me?" he said, bewildered. "I mean... yeah they have muggle friends and stuff but-" he stopped short when he saw what Harry was pointing to. Ron read it and his ears went pink.

"Those liars!" he fumed. Harry shrugged and gave him a pat on the back. They went and joined the twins, who were finally behaving themselves, and waited for Hermione. She came to them a moment later, pushing the baggage trolley.

"Come on then," she said, "let's board the plane." The four boys got up and followed her to a gate. Harry was just as excited as Ron and the twins. He'd never been out of the country before. They came to stop before a huge, silver archway. Ron poked Hermione.

"What's that?" he asked. She pointed to the archway, and he nodded.

"That's a metal detector. It checks for bombs and metallic objects that could be dangerous." she explained.

"Why would metal be dangerous?"

"Metal objects are usually sharp. Terrorists hi jack planes. It's like..." she struggled to come up with a wizard equivalent. "I'll explain it when we get to my Aunt's house."

Harry wore a quizzical expression "Your aunt's house? But if she's there, then we don't need our guardians."

"She's going away for two months." Hermione said "plenty of time. She's letting us use the house."

They passed through the metal detector. It beeped once when Fred passed through. He muttered a 'whoops' and put a metal button into the dish. Hermione raised and eyebrow and Fred just shrugged. They went and put their luggage on the baggage cart, Ron resumed asking questions during the whole process, and at last, they got to board the plane. Ron caught a glimpse of one when passing a window. He looked surprised.

"What?" Hermione said.

"I didn't expect them to be so big" Ron said quietly. She rolled her eyes and ushered him through the boarding gate. Harry stared at them for a while too, before Hermione pushed him.

"You're holding up the line" she said.

He snapped out of his daze "Oh right" he said. He took one last look at the landed planes and followed Hermione.

* * *

"Sit down already" Hermione said to Ron. He shuffled into the row and sat by the window. Harry sat next to him, and Hermione took the aisle seat. They fastened their seat belts. Ron began to prod the small screen in front of him. Before he could ask, Hermione leaned over and pulled out the remote in his arm rest.

"That's a t.v," she said " you know, the thing Harry told you about. Stop poking it already, it's not alive." She waved the remote infront of him. It had more buttons than a normal one. "You can change the channels with the remote." she flipped it over, this time, the buttons were that of a telephone. "You can make calls, but you have to ask the flight attendant about that."

"Can we try it now?" Ron said excitedly.

"No. We have to wait after take off." She then began a detailed explanation about safety precautions. Ron was overwhelmed by what she was saying, and hung onto every word. His eyes widened in shock when she told him that plane crashes could happen.

"We're safe... right?" Ron asked. Hermione nodded.

"As safe as we could be anyway." she replied. She continued the lecture about everything on the plane. Harry settled more comfortable into his chair, and played with the tray that was attached to the seat in front of him. He found a lever that allowed the chair to lean back, then forward again.

"Excuse me sir," a woman said to him. She was in the blue uniform of the stewardess. She looked quite annoyed. "Would you please stop that?" Harry looked at her in confusion. He looked behind him and saw one of the passengers looking quite angry, being squashed by the seat. "Oh sorry." he said, and withdrew his hand from the lever. He could've sworn the stewardess rolled her eyes.

"Would you like some warm towels?" she said in a voice that was completely different. Hermione nodded and they each received towels.

Ron gave Hermione a quizzical expression "What's this for?"

"Wipe your face with it." she said. Ron raised an eyebrow, but did what she told him to anyway. The stewardess came back in a moment and collected their towels. A voice suddenly filtered through the plane and Ron jumped.

"This is your Captain, Roger Mills" said the voice "Please fasten your seatbelts, we are to take off in a moment."

"Where's the voice coming from?" Ron asked in awe. Hermione was about to begin another tiresome lecture, but she was interrupted by all the t.vs switching on. The lady on it demonstrated all the correct procedures in case of emergency. Harry was getting quite paranoid at that point. Maybe the plane would crash? Then what would happen? He could just imagine the Dursleys' throwing a party at his death. His chain of thought was broken when Hermione nudged him. "Do up your seatbelt." she hissed. The voice boomed through the plane again.

"Please make yourself comfortable, we are taking off now. Switch off all mobile phones and laptops" it said. Harry gripped his armrests, as the plane rocked a little. Apart from that, he didn't feel any difference. He was quite disappointed. He thought that the take off of a plane would be much more exciting and bumpy. The tvs all swtiched to the same channel. It displayed a plane going up, the altitude metre counting.

There was an announcement."We are at flight altitude. It is now safe to remove your seatbelts." Hermione pushed the button and her seatbelt went straight up. A different stewardess came around with a trolley.

"Would you like some breakfast?" she asked them. She handed them some plates with bread, orange juice in a plastic cup and yoghurt. They all muttered a thank you and she went down the aisle. Ron took a fastidious taste of the yoghurt.

"Mmm. This stuff is good." he said. He took the bite out of the bread and his face contorted in disgust. He coughed a little and took a sip of the orange juice. "I take it back. Airplane food sucks." Hermione shrugged.

"Get used to it. You'll be having breakfast, lunch, dinner and breakfast again on this plane." she said grinning.

Harry turned on his t.v. It was better than the Dursleys' despite the size. He slipped on the headphones and flicked through the channels. Movies that hadn't been released yet were being shown on the plane. He found a games channel, and another boring one about flight progress. Hermione was writing in a book.

"What's that?" he asked. He reached to grab it, but she pulled away.

"It's a travel diary if you must know." she said. Ron snorted.

"Why would you want to keep one of those?" he said dryly. She gave him a patronising look.

"I'll tell you why I'm keeping it?" Ron nodded. She sighed and said in a dramatic voice"I'm keeping it, so that in future, when you ask for help with homework, I can slap this in your face as proof that I won the bet." Ron glared at her, but she gave him an innocent smile and continued writing.

Everything was alright for another hour. The only disruption was that of Ron going crazy, when he thought he was going deaf. ("Honestly Ron! Your ears just 'popped' because of the altitude, it's not the end of the world"). Hermione closed her travel diary and looked around. "I'm surprised that the twins have managed to stay this quiet for an hour." she said "I had expected something exploding or what have you." she looked over the seats before she realised that they were sitting right in front of her. She poked her head through the gap between the seats.

"Oi. Granger." Fred said. "Get someone, or do something. George is sick." There was a particularly disgusting sound. Fred winced. Hermione looked over at George. He was barfing into the brown, paper bag provided.

"Oh dear..." she said, worried. She pressed the buzzer on the remote control, and a steward appeared immediately. He gave George some pills then left. Hermione said something about bad treatment and sat back in her seat again.

"Is George alright?" Ron asked. Hermione nodded. Ron kicked the seat in front of him, and another audible retch was heard. "Oh that's bad." he said. "Hey Hermione, where's the toilet?" she pointed down the aisle and Ron got up. Harry took off his headphones and stretched. It was going to be a long plane trip, he might as well take a nap.

* * *

"Harry, Harry, wake up!"

Harry ignored the frequent prods. He was having a nice dream. Draco and Dudley were in a cage.

"Haarry...!"

Agh there goes Hermione again. Why couldn't she just annoy Ron.

"HARRY!"

At that moment, Hermione punched his arm and he woke up. "Ahh what?" he said, putting his glasses back on.

"Ron's been gone for two hours now." she said. "Two hours in the toilet. You don't think he's sick too do you?" Harry looked up over the seat. The sign near the arch to first class flashed 'vacant'.

"He's not in the toilet anymore." he said dumbly. Hermione looked at the sign, and said something incoherent. She got up out of her seat, almost knocking over the poor stewardess with the lunch trolley. Harry followed Hermione. He could her hear muttering about immature boys and insensibility. She stopped at the curtained archway.

"Stop Hermione." Harry hissed "This is first class. I don't think we're supposed to go in there." Hermione shrugged.

"I bet you anything that Ron went in there." she retorted. She pushed the curtains to either side and went in. First class was far better than business. The seats were more comfortable, there was a large t.v, the food even looked better. Hermione scanned the compartment and found Ron sitting directly in front of the large t.v. Her eyes instantly narrowed and she marched right up to him. He looked like he was enjoying himself. She stood next to him.

"Anything else Sir?" she said in a voice strained with patience.

"Yeah could I please have some more of that yoghurt please?" he replied, unaware that it wasn't a steward, but Hermione. She prodded him sharply in the back.

"Hey, that's passenger abu- oh hello Hermione, when did you get here?" he asked. She glared at him.

"Back to your seat, now" she said in a cold voice. He stood up looking quite disgruntled, but scared.

"She gets scarier every year" he said quietly to Harry.

"Move it" she said pushing Ron in the back.

They made their way back to their seats. Hermione and Ron had started another row, so Harry slipped on his earphones. The woman whom they'd almost bulldozed earlier, came by with the lunch trolley. "At least it's better than breakfast" Ron said. Hermione rolled her eyes and went back to writing in her travel diary. Harry sank back into his chair, and the plane trip settled into an uneventful journey.

* * *

Ron yawned "I'm so tired... How are we getting to your Aunt's house?"

The quintet had gotten off the plane, and were now collecting their luggage off the baggage carousel. Ron had at one point attempted to ride it, but Hermione had reprimanded him sharply. They went and passed through the gates. Sydney was so different to England. The airports were still similar though. Harry wanted to explore a bit, but he was too tired to do so.

"My Aunt will be sending us back with her chauffer. She's leaving the country today." Hermione said. They were all jet lagged, and George was still feeling a bit sick from the plane trip. The next hour passed in a blur. Harry was dimly aware that they'd gone into a large car, and were now at a two storey house. Hermione allocated rooms. It was a neat house, well kept. They all started unpacking, and the fatigue wore off for the Weasleys, just to be replace by curiosity. Hermione sighed.

"I'll give you a tour of the house tomorrow" she said yawning. Ron reached out to touch the oven "Don't touch that" Hermione said slapping his hand away. "We all better get some sleep and finish unpacking." They all nodded and went to their rooms. Harry didn't even bother undressing. He just kicked off his shoes and got into bed. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.


	3. Getting used to it

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Damn. My asteriks and indents didn't come up on the previous two chapters. And I haven't updated in a while (or maybe you haven't noticed. I wouldn't blame you) Sorry guys! Anyway, thank you to those people who've submitted reviews. ) I appreciate them a lot.This chapter is really short, I wrote it in a rush, and I didn't know where I was going with it, so be prepared to be very disappointed. I promise that in the next chapter, they will be starting school, and I most certainly will write it better than this one.

DISCLAIMER: All Harry Potter characters belong to J.K Rowling.

Harry woke up to the scent of scrambled eggs. Smelly scrambled eggs. He looked out the window and saw that the sun was setting. There was a large crash from downstairs. He got up and rushed down to the kitchen. Hermione was standing at the stove, holding a fire extinguisher, her hair was messier than usual. She looked up and saw Harry standing in the doorway.

"Oh hello Harry. You didn't have to get up." she said out of breath. She brushed a strand of hair from her face "I have everything under control, you just... go back to bed."

"Hermione, it's half past six. I can't go back to sleep now." he looked around the kitchen. "What happened? Do you need any help?" he asked. She flushed red.

"Um... just had a little accident with the oven. It's different from the one we have at home." She looked around and surveyed the damage that her attempt at cooking had created. It wasn't too bad. Bits of eggs had splattered on the wall, but apart from that, everything was ok.

Ron came down the stairs. "What's all the noise about?" He took one look at the kitchen and grimaced. "Oh. Well, I'll just be going now" he turned and went back to his room. Hermione sighed and took a cloth from one of the cupboards. "Go back upstairs Harry." she said "I'll clean up here. I'll call you down when dinner is ready."

"You sure you don't need any help?" he asked again. She nodded. Harry was heading up the stairs when Hermione called out to him.

"Oh. You might want to see our uniforms. I've hung them up in my room." she paused before continuing. "Try them on."

Harry entered Hermione's room. She'd already made herself at home in it. Everything was neat and set in order. She'd even changed her sheets already. He went and opened her cupboard. Sure enough, their uniforms were the first things he saw.

* * *

And they were horrible.

The boys uniform was a long sleeved, green shirt, with maroon pants. The tie was striped white and gold. The colours clashed terribly. He looked at the girl's uniform. It was the same shirt as the boys' one, with a maroon tunic. The tie was also white and gold. Harry took his uniform, and went to his room. He held it up in front of his face, before reluctantly trying it on. He'd forgotten that muggle uniforms weren't as comfortable as the wizarding robes. Turning slowly, he faced the mirror and gasped.

It looked horrible.

He hastily took it off and entered Ron's room. Quite the opposite to Hermione's tidiness, Ron's room was of course, a mess. Clothes were strewn over the floor and bed, the sheets weren't made. Ron noticed that Harry was in the room, and cleared his bed a bit.

"Hi Harry. I haven't gotten around to unpacking yet." he gestured to the surrounding mess. "What have you got there?" Harry looked at him quizically for a moment, before he realised Ron was refering to his uniform.

"Oh. These." he said, none too enthusiastic. He threw Ron's uniform onto the bed. "These, are our uniforms"

Ron picked up the shirt and made a face. "You're not serious are you?I'll look like a strawberry!" Harry shrugged and Ron shook his head. "Trust Hermione to get us something like this. No way I'm wearing these to a school." He threw the uniform towards the door, where Hermione was standing, arms crossed.

"You don't get a choice Ronald" she said impatiently. "This was the only school I could find with three openings. Anyway, dinner's ready" she stalked off down the stairs. Ron shrugged and followed after her, Harry behind him.

Hermione had cleaned up remarkably well. The kitchen looked as it had when they'd arrived. The table was set nicely, although instead of the egg Hermione had tried to cook, pizza was being served. The twins were already there, feet on the table.

"Don't you two have any manners at all? Feet off the table!" Hermione snapped. George raised and eyebrow, but did as he was told.

"Someone's touchy today..." Fred muttered. Hermione glared at him, before eating her pizza. Ron took a slice and bit off a little bit.

"This is actually good." he said. Hermione sent him a withering look, but he was unpertubed."Where'd you get it from?"

"Is it so hard to believe that I might actually cook well?" she asked coldly. No one answered. "Well, I ordered it from a pizza delivery service. Dominoes or something like that."

"Delivery service?" Ron inquired. Hermione briefly explained what it was, and Ron nodded.

"So when will you kids be off to school?" George asked.

"Oh. We're starting Monday" she said. "I thought that maybe we could do a bit of sight seeing tomorrow. Get used to the weather and time difference."

"Will we be seeing the huge arched bridge thing?" Ron asked. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Didn't you read that brochure thoroughly? It's called the Harbour Bridge."

"Whatever. So can you explain all these muggle things to me now?"

Hermione sighed. "I guess. It'll take a while. But before you use anything, please make sure you know how to operate it. I don't want to damage anything here ok?" Ron and the twins nodded. Hermione pushed back her chair and beckoned them to follow. "I don't suppose you'll want to have a tour of the house Harry, so you can just do whatever you want. But if you're going out, tell me- Ron! What did I say about touching the oven!" she dragged Ron away and began the tour of the house. Harry decided to go out for a while. He scribbled a note to Hermione and left the house.

Harry stood in the back yard. The winter air wasn't as cold as it was in England. He sat on the swing set. Not as many buildings as he thought there would be. He sighed, looking up at the sky. Surprisingly, his thoughts didn't turn to Voldemort and the future, like they usually did. Instead, he was actually enjoying himself, and for one split second, he was free from any disturbing thoughts.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO MAGIC?"

Well... one split second is better than nothing.

Harry ran into the house, worried that something dangerous might've happened. He saw Hermione and Ron, standing at opposite ends of the living room. The twins were quietly examining the computer.

"Well you should've thought about that sooner!" Hermione yelled at Ron. "Anyone would've thought it through. We're not supposed to use magic outside of school. Those two idiots can though- DON'T KEEP PRESSING THAT BUTTON!" She went over to the computer and disconnected the keyboard. Everything was silent for a moment.

"Heh. No wonder she couldn't cook," George said nudging Fred. They both chuckled while Hermione glowered at them.

"I'm going to bed," Fred said feigning a yawn. "Let's not get involved in their lovers spat. Come on" The twins said goodnight and left the room. Ron slumped into the chair and put a hand to his head. "You could've warned me," he muttered.

"Like I said before" Hermione said more calmly, "anyone would've thought it out earlier. I guess I'll postpone that sight seeing venture for tomorrow. You'll have to learn everything about muggle stuff and you'll need more than a day for that."

"So we would've still gone tomorrow if I wasn't aware of the magic status?" Ron asked. Hermione shrugged "I knew it." he said under his breath.

"Anyway, I'm going to bed now. Good night" she said, rather stiffly. She crossed her arms and stormed off up the stairs.

"There's seriously something wrong with her." Ron said to Harry.

"I heard that." Hermione called from the stairs.

Harry decided not to probe Ron on their row. School was going to begin in less than 48 hrs. Bidding Ron a good night, Harry went to his room. The next 24 hours would pass very quickly...


	4. First Day part 1

AUTHORS NOTE: Mini Sakura, it was a joke ok? I've updated now please stop calling me names. Hello again people! I've just realised, that if I update too quickly, then it will be completed really fast and no one will read my story. But whatever. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE REVIEWS PEOPLE! The more reviews I get, the faster I'll try to update :). I've written a long chapter (a long chapter to me anyway, I even had to cut it). So I hope you appreciate it! Again, thank you for the reviews!

I'll shut up now.

The sun was just rising, everything was quiet. Harry could hear birds twittering. He rolled over, got up out of bed and slipped on his glasses. He glanced at his watch. 5:30am. He opened the window and the morning breeze whipped at his face. He had to admit, although he was dragged into this silly bet, he was actually looking forward to attending muggle school. There'd be no Dudley, none of his evil little henchmen to chase him across rooftops. He yawned and decided to go downstairs. He wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. Harry had just walked out the door when he bumped into something.

"Oh. Sorry Harry. Didn't see you there," he heard Fred say. George snickered and helped Harry up. He replaced his fallen glasses.

"What are you two doing up so early?" he asked them. George chuckled again.

"You know what? We haven't been the most responsible people we should've been," George said seriously. "It's high time that we become the good guardians we were sent to be!"

"So, we shall wake Ron up and make sure that he's on time for school!" Fred said enthusiastically.

Harry's brow furrowed in confusion. "What? Right now?"

"Of course right now!" Fred exclaimed. "We want to be responsible now."

Harry looked at his watch. "But it's only... 5:40. Isn't that a little too early?" George clapped him on the back.

"Youngsters these days" he said shaking his head "no sense of priority."

"Besides," Fred continued "you know what they say. Better early than never!"

"They don't say that" Harry said confused.

"Well then... The early bird gets the worm! Is that right?" Fred asked George. His twin nodded and Fred shrugged "yeah. That's the one. Anyway, we're ten minutes off schedule! We don't want to set a bad example by being late!" The two chortled and headed down the hall. Wary, but curious, Harry followed them. The twins stood outside Ron's door, each pulling out a party blower. George winked at Harry.

"Strange the things muggles come up with" he said. They quietly pushed the door open, and manouevred their way through the mess on the floor. They kneeled on either side of Ron's bed (who by the way, was sleeping peacefully). George held up three fingers.

Then two fingers.

Then one finger.

A loud sound, like horns, reverberated through the room. Ron sat up in bed, looking around him. Fred and George were on the floor, laughing.

"What's happening? What's going on?" Ron said in a panic. The twins stopped laughing and stared seriously at Ron.

"We've just woken you up Ron" Fred said innocently "we don't want you to be late now do we?" Ron picked up the clock on his bedside table.

"Well _never _wake me up again. What time is i- IT'S QUARTER TO SIX IN THE MORNING YOU IDIOTS!" he yelled at them. "SCHOOL DOESN'T START FOR ANOTHER..." he trailed off.

"Two hours and forty five minutes," a voice said from the doorway. Harry jumped, realising that someone was behind him. Hermione, looking none too happy, stood with her arms crossed and glared at the twins.

"Congratulations" she said icily "you've managed to wake the entire house up, and no doubt some people down the road. We can't go back to sleep now thank you very much!"

George ignored her tone of voice. "You're welcome Hermione" he said. "Seeing as you're all up, let's have some breakfast!" he said. He grinned cheekily. "I would ask you to make breakfast for us Granger, but quite frankly, you can't cook." The two left before she could say anything. Ron rubbed his eyes and shot a withering look at Hermione.

"You just had to bring them along didn't you?" he said drowsily.

"I am beginning to regret that." Hermione sighed. "But like I said, it was either them or Percy. Do you want me to give him a call?"

Ron shook his head vigorously and Hermione gave him a smug look "Well I suggest that you stop whinging then"

* * *

It was a long morning.

They actually had a nice breakfast, minus the frequent complaints about "looking like a strawberry" from Ron and the time it took for the twins to make the meal ("You took an hour and forty minutes to prepare cereal!" Ron muttered). They were now sitting at the table eating, except for Hermione, who was sitting in the living room checking over her school equipment. The phone suddenly began to ring, the Weasleys all perked up at the sound.

"I'll get it" Hermione called from the living room. She picked up the phone "Hello?"

"HELLO? HERMIONE? IS THAT YOU? CAN YOU HEAR ME?" Hermione winced and held the phone away from her ear. When the yelling stopped, she spoke into the phone again.

"Hello Mrs Weasley. No need to shout."

"HOW COME I CAN'T HEAR RON? WHERE IS HE?" Mrs Weasley continued yelling.

"You don't have to yell. He's eating breakfast would you like me to-"

"COULD YOU BE A DEAR AND GET HIM FOR ME HERMIONE?"

Hermione gave up on trying to tell Mrs Weasley not to yell. "RON! YOUR MUM'S ON THE PHONE!" she yelled. A few moments later, Ron came into the living room. Hermione handed him the phone and headed for the kitchen. She picked up the phone extenstion, and set it on the kitchen counter before beginning to eat. Harry raised and eyebrow, and she shrugged in return.

"HELLO? RON? CAN YOU HEAR ME?" Mrs Weasley yelled over the phone. Like Hermione, Ron held the phone at arms distance. But instead of calmly speaking into the phone, he yelled right back.

"I CAN HEAR YOU MUM" he said.

"OH GOOD. THESE MUGGLE THINGS CAN BE A BIT DODGY. ANYWAY HOW IS IT OVER THERE?"

"IT'S GREAT HERE MUM!"

"IS THERE ANYTHING YOU NEED? I CAN ALWAYS SEND AN OWL-"

"NO MUM EVERYTHING'S FINE!"

Fred and George snickered at the on going conversation.

"GET YOUR BROTHERS FOR ME RON" Mrs Weasley yelled into the phone. George went into the living room, while Fred picked up the extension.

"HELLO? FRED? GEORGE?"

George chuckled. "Indoor voice mother. INDOOR voice. We can hear you just fine."

"Oh. I can talk like this? Can you hear me?" Mrs Weasley asked.

"We can hear you fine mother" Fred replied.

"Good. I want you to take care of those three and don't let them get into trouble. And make sure Ron behaves."

"Don't worry mum" George said, pinching Ron's cheek (yes, he's still in the living room) "They'll be just fine with us."

"You would have been so proud of us" Fred said "We woke them up bright and early"

"Those are my good little boys" Mrs Weasley said happily. "You be good now. Oh wait. Ginny wants to have a word with you." There was some static as the phone was passed from Mrs Weasley to Ginny.

"WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU!" Ginny yelled over the phone. "Why did you leave me here with Percy? TAKE ME WITH YOU!" Fred winced.

"We honestly didn't mean to Ginny" George said. "It's only three weeks-"

"Oh yes," Ginny said coldly "only THREE weeks with PERCY and the MIND NUMBING lectures. Tell me: what did I do to deserve it?"

"Uh..." Fred said "we'll come back soon enough-"

"HMMM? WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU TO DESERVE IT? HOW WOULD YOU LIKE BEING STUCK WITH PERCY FOR THREE WEEKS ON YOUR OWN."

"Did someone call me?" Fred heard Percy say in the background. George laughed as he heard Ginny telling him to go away.

"Oh dear" Fred said "It looks like the connection is breaking up" he tapped the phone a couple of times on the counter. "Bye Ginny"

"DON'T YOU DARE!

George quickly slammed the receiver down. "Nice to be in touch with the family" he said grinning. Hermione ushered Harry into the living room.

"I want you two to make sure you have everything ready for school" She said.

"Hold on Hermione, that's our job" George said. "Ok kids. I want you to make sure you have everything for school" Hermione rolled her eyes and went over her things again. Harry didn't bother. They wouldn't give him homework on his first day. Ron muttered under his breath about being harrassed all morning.

"Ok good. Off to school with you!" Fred said perkily. He walked them down the hallway, pulled the door open, pushed them out and slammed it.

"A nice way to say goodbye" Ron said sarcastically. "How are we getting to school Hermione?" he asked.

"Well... I decided we should take the chauffer today, then tomorrow we can take the bus, then the train, and then decide which one is best" she replied. The three piled into the limo and headed for school.

* * *

The trio stood outside the buidling, staring up at the big letters on the school front. _Pemet High School_. Harry surveyed the area. It was big. Students were scattered in random places, talking and playing sport. It was like a cliche American high school movie. Hermione nudged Harry.

"We better go to the Principal's office or something." Hermione said. The three walked up the steps to the big school, attracting stares. The seniors could tell they were new. The new uniforms, the oversized school bags. The familiar look of lost people trying to act cool.

They looked so naive.

They were inside the building, Ron looked around him everywhere. He pointed to some lockers.

"What are those Hermione?" he asked.

"They're lockers Ron. You put your books and things in there when you're bag is to heavy to carry or if you don't want to take something home. They're basically storage spaces."

They headed down the corridor, each door had a number over it or a plaque. Some of them weren't very flattering, some students had crossed out letters and added in some... vulgar things. The trio walked until they came across a door with a golden plaque. _Principal Ms. E. Grafton. _

"Well, I guess we should go in" Hermione said. She rapped on the door, and a severe looking woman opened it. She wore rectangular glasses, and her brown hair was done up in a fashionable bun. She was surprisingly young.

"You are the new students am I correct?" she asked them. They nodded and she gestured inside. "Come in." They slowly made their way inside as the woman brought out another chair. The school bell rang, and they heard the chattering of students heading to classes. The woman opened the door and scolded a few students.

"She reminds me of McGonagall for some reason" Ron whispered to Harry. They each took a seat and the woman introduced herself.

"I am the school Principal, Ms Grafton. You are Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, and Harry Potter. If there are any nicknames you wished to be called or any problems with your name spelling etc please say so now." she paused. When no one said anything, she continued. "I trust that you will be diligent students. You must abide by uniform policy, classroom rules and listen to your teachers.There are eight periods per day, you will have a maximmum of five subjects. Please do not hesitate to ask for help on any matter. Are your guardians here by any chance?"

"Um... no." Harry said quietly "They were busy today."

"Well that's fine then" Grafton said. She handed them each a slip of paper. "You've all been allocated to the same classes for each subject. I hope you will adjust well to school" she spent a while explaining things to them. She looked at her watch.

"You've missed out on first period today" she said. "I"ll introduce you to your class next period, which should be in a few minutes. Remember that your classmates are fairly new too. As year sevens, they've only been here a term, so you will adapt quickly along with them." As if on cue, the bell rang again and the principal smiled. "Welcome to Pemet High School"


	5. First Day part 2

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ok. Maybe the last chapter wasn't as long as I thought it was. This one is, although it isn't as humorous as the last few ones. There are a few inside jokes for my friends who are reading it waves happily I also encountered the dreaded writer's block, so it might not be so interesting to you guys. I have written the next chapter, but I'll wait a while before posting it up. Sorry if this chapter disappoints you, BUT THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the HP characters, but I do own some now. Like Catalina, Lawrence, Tim and the rest of them. As well as the teachers, the students wanders off, reciting characters

"Excuse me Miss Wills?"

The teacher looked up, seeing the principal at the door. They were standing outside the computer lab.

"I'll just be a minute. May I introduce the new students?" Miss Wills replied in the affirmative, and the trio were ushered into the classroom.

"These are the new students, Ronald, Harry and Hermione. I expect you to give them a warm welcome and help them out when they need it."

Ms Grafton looked at 7 Technology 1 down her glasses. They weren't a very enthusiastic bunch. They were all different, different nationalities, different personalities, different appearances. All the students were looking at them, except for a girl with black hair and blue streaks. She was reading a book under the table by the looks of it.

"Catalina," Ms Grafton said sternly. The girl looked up. "You will show the new students around the school." Catalina gave an annoyed look, then put her book away. A few of her friends nudged her and giggled. Ms Grafton nodded to their teacher. "I won't distrupt your class any further," she gave all the students another long stare and left the classroom.

"Well then" Miss Wills said. She had wiry blonde hair and rather large glasses. She gestured to the table. "You can take a seat" she said to the new students. "As I was explaining before, you will be receiving USBs, and a booklet. Over the next few weeks, you will be working through these exercises with a partner." There was a loud groan from the students. Miss Wills waited for the noise to quieten down, before speaking again. "Once you've selected your partners, take a seat at a computer."

There was a bit of bustling when everyone was rushing to the computers. Ron was about to go with Harry, but Hermione grabbed his shoulder.

"Oh no you don't" she said in a low voice "I'm not letting you influence him."

Ron rolled his eyes "What am I going to do? Perform a spell on him?"

"You'll brainwash him" Hermione hissed. She steered Ron over to a computer. "Sit" Ron shook his head and sat down. His irritation disappeared immediately, when he started playing around with the computer. Hermione slapped his hand away and instantly began a long lecture on its functions. He sent a pleading look towards Harry, who was still searching for a partner.

"Ok. Who're the rejects?" the teacher asked. A few of the students laughed.

"You're so nice Miss" a brown haired boy called out sarcastically.

"Thank you Lawrence" the teacher replied in a similar tone.

There were four of them left. Catalina, Harry, a short, snobby looking girl and a chubby boy. Catalina glared at her friends, who were currently laughing at her.

"Rejected!" the brown haired boy called out. Catalina glared at him.

"Miss Mae" Miss Will said to Catalina. "You choose first."

Catalina didn't look very pleased. She seemed to be thinking about the pros and cons before shrugging.

"I pick new boy."

Harry went over to one of the computers and sat with Catalina. The teacher began to hand out USBs and booklets.

"Start your exercises now, I'll be in the staff room if you need me," Miss Wills said. As soon as she left the room, the silence that had settled was broken.

"You know how to do all this stuff right?" Catalina asked. Harry, who was watching his friends, turned around.

"What?" he asked. Catalina's gaze flickered to his forehead. Harry recognised that look. The one wizards gave him when they saw his scar. He must've imagined it because a second later, she was waving the booklet in front of his face.

"You know how to do this stuff?" she repeated.

"Um yeah"

Catalina nodded. "Then you don't mind if I just go ahead and do these?" Harry shrugged, then his attention turned towards his friends again. Catalina began the exercises, and finished them within ten minutes.

"You don't have to stay here if I'm boring you" Catalina said, following Harry's gaze. "You can swap with Lawrence. He's probably finished as well." she gestured to the brown haired boy from earlier. "Oi Law!" she shouted across the room. The boy turned around.

"What do you want?" Lawrence asked.

"Get over here" Catalina yelled. Lawrence stood slowly from his seat and headed over to them. He pulled out Harry's seat and ruffled his hair."Welcome new kid. I would say hello to your friends over there, but they look a bit preoccupied." he winked at Harry before going occupying the seat. Harry went over to Lawrence's empty chair.

"Computer nerds." Lawrence's partner murmmured. "They're probably hacking again. Ah well. They're useful for boring computer stuff" he turned to face Harry. "Hi I'm Tim" he shook Harry's hand and invited him to sit.

"If they're both computer nerds, why didn't they pair up?" Harry asked. Tim smiled.

"Lawrence lost a bet. He's going to end up as a compulsive gambler if you ask me. Anyway, he has to help me with homework for three weeks" Tim tilted his head towards Ron and Hermione. "Those two have been bickering for ages! Are they always like that?" Harry looked over to his friends. Ron was going red in the face. Harry shrugged.

"Yeah pretty much." he said negligently.

"The red head seems to be a bit ignorant with computers" Tim said slowly "picked up the mouse and started rattling it.

Harry smiled "Oh. Ron hasn't had much exposure to technology. Grew up in the country"

"Oh. Okay. Do you want to surf the net? There's not much else to do. Miss Wills won't come back until the end of the double anyway." Tim said.

"Stop hogging the computer you pig!"

"Why don't you shut up."

"You just want an excuse so you can suck up to the teacher about how you're doing all the work"

Harry turned to see where the argument was brewing. It was the two students from before, snobby girl and chubby boy. Sounded like a super hero team. He was surprised that everyone ignored the ongoing argument.

"What's wrong with those two?" Harry asked Tim.

"Oh. Stella and Adam." Tim said in an annoyed tone. "No one likes them really. Stella is a plain suck up, she likes to boss people around and always interrupts conversations. Adam wouldn't be so bad if he just shut up once in a while. Always rambles on about politics and stuff no one really cares about. They're both total loners."

They spent the rest of the lesson going on the internet, Tim explained a few things about web design and sites. The bell rang and all the students hurried to roll call. Catalina walked over to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"I'll show you to your roll call rooms" she said, beckoning them to follow

"I'm guessing that you're in roll call classes 2, 4 and 5." she looked over Hermione's shoulder and read the timetable. "Yep. I guess I'm right. Anyway, roll call rooms are pretty easy to remember. 7.1 is in room 11, 7.2 is in room 12 etc. I'll meet you downstairs then show you around the school." she waved then headed for room 13.

"What's roll call?" Ron asked.

"Well, they just check attendance" Hermione explained "when the teacher calls out your name, you're supposed to say 'here'"

"Oh. Right. What a boring class"

"It's not a class exactly"

"Will we get to play around with computers again?"

"Just be quiet and go to roll call already."

* * *

Catalina stood at the base of the stairs, waiting for the new students to arrive. The trio were almost crushed by the rush of students trying to get outside. Catalina decided she didn't want to be part of the stampede, and signaled to the trio that she'd be waiting outside the door. As they were pushed outside, Catalina checked her watch.

"This tour should take about eight minutes," she said to them. She was about to start leading them around, when six other students, two girls, four boys, came up to them. Harry recognised Lawrence, Tim and Allen, who was in his roll call.

"Mind if we come along?" one of the girls asked smiling. Catalina shrugged.

"Ok newbies, these are my friends, Lawrence, Tim, Siobhan, Eleanor, Allen and James." Her friends all smiled. "Ok can we start now? No offence, I don't want to waste my recess being a tour guide"

"No it's ok" Allen said cheekily "we don't mind. Let's just get to know the new people"

"Come on you losers, if you're not coming then I'll start already."

"No really, it's ok, you can wait for us, we don't mind" Allen continued. Catalina rolled her eyes and started walking.

"Ignore Allen," Eleanor said to Hermione "he can be a real git sometimes. Gets on Catalina's nerves a fair bit too."

"Mmm I can relate to that," Hermione replied, casting a backwards glance at Ron. They headed off after Catalina.

Regardless of whether she wanted to do it or not, Catalina was actually a good tour guide. Her friends were making running commentary, telling the trio certain things about various places. In a short while, they were back to the beginning.

"You can hang out with us for today," Siobhan said "just be careful. Stella and Adam are bound to prey on you guys, you know, seeing as you're new."

"Speak of the devil" James muttered, as Stella headed towards them. He quickly started walking away. Siobhan, Allen, Eleanor and Tim followed suit, Ron managed to get away with them. Lawrence glared at them as Stella was fast approaching. They stood off near a tree, close enough to hear the conversation, but far enough not to make contact.

"Traitors" Lawrence said shaking his head "you might want to be careful Hermione. She'll be after you."

Stella came over to them, grinning broadly. "Hi Cat!" she said in a really loud voice. Catalina winced at the nickname.

"Hello Stella" Catalina replied coldly. Stella was oblivious to her tone of voice and turned to Harry and Hermione.

"I thought there were three of you" she said. She looked around her, like a cat looking for a mouse. She spotted Ron and waved energetically. Lawrence snickered, and Stella turned around.

"I saw you guys walking around the school," Stella blabbed on, "why didn't you ask me to come along?"

Catalina put on an angelic face "were we supposed to?" she asked innocently. Stella scowled at her.

"Of course you were supposed to Cat!" she said hurt. Catalina rolled her eyes. "Do you want to sit with me today?" Stella asked, turning her attention on Hermione.

"Oh um..." Hermione looked past Stella at Ron "Harry and I are sitting with Catalina."

"They're helping us with some stuff already." Harry added.

Stella was still nonplussed. She gripped Hermione's arm "Who wants to work?" she asked in a negligent tone. Hermione pulled her arm away.

"We do" she retorted, a little irritated "but you can always ask Ron if you want." she gestured over to the rest of the group. "I'm sure he'd like to sit with you." Stella's eyes lit up and she headed over to Ron.

"Nice going Granger" Catalina said happily. She waved over to the rest of her friends, who were trying to move away again. They moved over to their left, and found that Adam was coming towards them as well.

"Oh that's gotta be bad," Lawrence chuckled "double assault. Serves them right. Let's go see the outcome."

"Shouldn't we go do something?" Harry asked.

Hermione shrugged "Ron certainly deserves it. Let's see how he handles it."

The four of them sat on the silver seats and watched. Lawrence nudged Catalina.

"We betting again?" he asked.

"Sure. They're safe for now. Those two will start fighting." Catalina said.

"Nah. They'll both go after them."

"Five bucks?"

"You're on"

Harry observed what was happening. Both Stella and Adam reached the group of friends at the same time. Just as Catalina predicted, they immediately began fighting. Catalina smiled smugly, as Lawrence handed over five dollars.

"Do you reckon we should go save them now?" Harry asked. Lawrence shook his head.

"Nope. Let's just watch. It's not everyday you see such great entertainment" he said winking. Their friends just watched as Stella and Adam continued their row. They suddenly stopped yelling and talked in lower voices.

"Let's move closer," Catalina suggested. They moved up a few metres away from their friends. Tim scowled at them, while Siobhan mouthed the words 'help me'. They could hear the whole thing now.

"Let's let them choose then" Adam said. "Me or her?"

"Oh... well we can't decide" James said in an uncertain tone. Catalina held back a giggle as James sent her a withering look.

"Choose!" Stella said in a stern voice. Harry smiled. It was a little funny watching them. Trying not to upset either of the two.

"Ok. I think we should go rescue them now." Catalina said. She was about to head over to the group, when Lawrence grabbed her shoulder.

"What are you doing? You're going directly onto the battlefield!" he said in a dramatic voice. Catalina looked over at them again. It was getting a little out of hand.

"You're right I don't want to be going over there." she said. She looked around and saw Ms Grafton passing by. "Bingo" she smiled. She walked past her group of friends and winked at them.

"Ms Grafton," she called out in a sing song voice. Stella immediately shut up and looked over at the principal. "Oh hello you guys" Catalina said, as if she just noticed them. "I've been looking for you."

"I've got to go" Stella said suddenly, hurriedly walking off after Ms Grafton. Adam rolled his eyes. As if suddenly noticing Catalina, he coughed and left.

"Why'd he just leave?" Ron asked.

"Catalina thrashed him in a political debate" Allen explained "insulted her opinion and she exploded."

"What were you thinking!" James said exasperated "Never again do I want to be anywhere near those two!"

"You can thank Granger for that" Lawrence said, coming over to them "you know you deserved it."

"Hi Cat!" Eleanor mocked "I saw you going around the school, why didn't you invite me along" The others laughed at her impersonations.

"Isn't it a bit mean, you know, making fun of them?" Hermione asked. Siobhan looked at her seriously.

"I used to be like you" she said frankly, "I felt a little sorry for her, so at the beginning of the year, I used to sit with her. Believe me, you shouldn't pity her. She's so bossy, she thinks she's so smart and everything. It's really annoying. And if she hears you mention her name, she goes all psycho."

Tim yawned "Could we please go sit somewhere already? I'd rather we not talk about Stella. I'm hungry."

"Aren't you always..." Allen said rolling his eyes. The bell rang and Catalina sighed.

"Can I see your time tables?" she asked Harry, Ron and Hermione. She skimmed down each one quickly "You're all in the same classes, which means you're in all of our classes. That's a bit funny. "

"Oh hurry up" Siobhan called. She was already halfway across the quad. "Let's go. I don't want to miss out on art!"

* * *

The art room was what you'd expect it to be. A colourful mess. The artwork exhibited around the classroom was nothing short of fantastic. Harry could see that the long, yellow tables were clean. Siobhan sat down and patted the seat next to her. "Come on you guys. Sit." the rest of the group sat down and waited for the teacher to arrive.

"Siobhan likes art" Allen explained "such an enthusiastic student. For the rest of us, it's a bludge."

"I hope I didn't just hear you say that Mr Portam" the teacher said as she gracefully glided into the room.

"No Mrs. Reicher" Allen said. "She's got hearing like a bat" he wrote on a sheet of paper, and slid it to Harry.

"Today class, we'll be sketching." Mrs Reicher announced "We'll be putting up the final product, so please, don't make a mess of it." Siobhan raised a hand, but before she could ask her question, Mrs Reicher replied "No, you may not swap. You will be drawing the people sitting opposite you" Siobhan sighed and scowled at Allen, whom she was going to sketch. "You may get the paper, you know where it is"

Lawrence came by with a huge pile of A5 sheets. He passed them down the row. The room immediately filled with chatter, although Mrs Reicher didn't seem to mind. Tim groaned.

"Great" he said dryly "James is sketching me"

"What's wrong with that?" James said indignantly. "I can draw!"

"Oh you're so good at it." Tim said sarcastically. He passed a sheet of paper to Ron, along with a little sketch. "James drew that" he said. Ron rotated the picture.

"What's it's supposed to be?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. The rest of the group burst out laughing. Harry took the sketch off Ron.

"I think it's meant to be an animal" Harry suggested.

James flushed."Well actually, it's a self portrait."

"That makes sense," Catalina muttered, "I mean, we don't really count James as a human, so it's logical. I'm just surprised he was able to hold a pencil, rodents don't have opposable thumbs. "

"Catalina, you're the sweetest person in the world" James said coldly.

"I know!" Catalina exclaimed with fake happiness.

Lawrence grinned and turned his attention onto Harry. "Pose for me" he said jokingly. He put pencil to paper and looked at Harry for a minute. His brow crinkled in confusion as he saw Harry's scar. It was like the look Catalina had given him earlier. Then again, artists were supposed to study their subjects, scars and deformities were appealing to them.

"How'd you get that?" Lawrence asked, pointing to his scar.

"Oh. Car crash" Harry said negligently. Surprisingly, he didn't press the subject.

"So tell us something about yourselves." Tim said " You came from England didn't you?"

"Yes that's right" Hermione said. She launched into a long story, the cover up that they had agreed on. Eleanor nodded.

"I've been to England" she said "so how do you like Australia so far?"

"We haven't really been to see anything yet" Ron said, intending the message for Hermione. She rolled her eyes.

"We could show you around the city on the weekend" Siobhan suggested "Do a bit of sight seeing and stuff"

"Do you guys want to?" Hermione asked Harry and Ron. Ron shrugged, while Harry nodded.

"The weekend is so far away" Allen groaned, banging his head against the table.

"Yes, but the bell is in two minutes" Catalina said packing up her pencils. She peered over Lawrence's shoulder. He was really focussed on his work. "Woah. That's good" Catalina commented. Lawrence pulled the paper away, as people tried to have a look.

"You're not allowed to see it until it's finished," he said. The bell rang, and he slung his bag over his shoulder. "We've got english next up."

* * *

There wasn't much time to talk in english. Mr Reeve, their teacher, wouldn't tolerate it. Harry yawned as they listened to lecture on grammar. Fortunately, the bell rung and they hurried off to History.

"I don't get the point in full stops, comas and whatever" Ron muttered to Harry. "I didn't even finish half those exercises he gave us. Now we have homework."

"He always sets us exercises like that" Eleanor said "No one ever finishes them in class, except for Catalina. She's such a nerd sometimes."

"I heard that" Catalina called over her shoulder.

"Is she smart then?" Hermione asked.

"She's like, super intelligent, she doesn't show it though" Lawrence said "she doesn't want them to push her up a grade, but everyone knows she's got a brain the size of a computer."

"I can hear you talking about me." Catalina shouted, already up the other end of the corridor "stop it!"

"She's so prissy" Lawrence called out. Catalina turned around and glared at him. "Wait up nerd!" he yelled, running after her.

"Lawrence is smart too" Allen said "he's one level below Catalina in everything except math and art"

"Looks like you've got comptetition" Ron said quietly, nudging Hermione.

"I couldn't care less" she replied without much conviction. They turned a corner, and reached the classroom. Their teacher was a laid back young woman, Miss Thiabald. Many of the students liked her.

"She makes history interesting" James had said to Harry. They were learning about ancient civilisations. Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Babylonians. Remembering what Lawrence had said, Harry had noticed that Catalina was intelligent. Hermione picked up on this as well. The class was enthralled by the lesson, and when the bell rang, they were all disappointed. Except for Tim.

"I'm hungry" he whined. "Let's go eat lunch already"

The ten friends headed off to sit on the grass area. Tim was jumping up and down on the spot. James was talking to Ron and Harry, telling them one attribute of his friends.

"Siobhan's cool, Tim's a pig, Allen's... well stupid. Ellie's generous" James said. "She often gives away free stuff and things-"

"TIM YOU OWE ME FIFTY CENTS!"

Heads turned to see Eleanor, hands on hips and glaring. Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"You were saying?" she murmmured. James shrugged.

"Well, she is a bit stingy when it comes to money, but she does lend stuff a lot"

After a few minutes, everything settled. Tim finally ended up milking money off James ("You better pay it back mate, or I'll remind Eleanor of that $2 she lent you last term"). Allen flipped through his school diary.

"How long are you staying in Australia?" he asked Ron.

"Three weeks" he replied.

Siobhan choked on her sandwich. "Three weeks? Only?"

"Well they've certainly come at the most interesting time," Catalina said, reading over Allen's shoulder. "So many events coming up soon. Exams, excursion to the beach, fundraising events, Yr 7 camp, school photos. What a coincidence..."

"Exams?" Hermione asked perking up.

"Oooo So eager Granger" Lawrence chuckled. "Yeah exams. Manditory stuff for everyone in the state. It'll be a cinch."

"For you" James said under his breath. Tim literally came skipping back from the canteen, a stuffed burrito in his hand. He sat down and took a huge bite out of the burrito. It was disgusting to watch. Eleanor looked away.

"Can't you eat like a human?" she asked in a disgusted voice. Tim was about to answer, when Eleanor rolled her eyes "don't talk with your mouth full" she scolded.

"That's just weird," Ron said watching. Harry coughed. He didn't really want to watch someone eat.

"So what's up next?" he asked. Hermione looked at her time table.

"Um... double music" she said.

"Music?" Ron questioned.

"Yeah. I guess we'll be looking at instruments and stuff"

"Will we be learning to play songs?" Harry asked.

Catalina looked at them suspiciously, "didn't you learn music in England?"

"Well no, we weren't really... exposed to that type of thing" Hermione said "just the basics"

"Living without learning music? That's sad" Eleanor said shaking her head, "what's the time?"Harry checked his watch.

"Twenty to two" he said. Tim's eyes widened.

"Sha berl gosh in fahv minooths" he said with a full mouth. Eleanor whacked him on the back of the head.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," she sternly repeated. Allen and James laughed as Tim's eyes watered. He stuffed the burrito into his mouth and wiped his hands.

"Ugh that's gross" Hermione said. Siobhan smiled.

"You might not want to watch Tim eat. He used to be way worse before. Then he met Eleanor. She's a neat freak" she snatched a packet of chips from Tim. "You won't be able to finish that in two minutes. Well, you might, but it's just plain gross to watch. Slow down."

"We didn't have any homework due did we?" Lawrence asked. They all shrugged, and the bell went off. Allen sighed "Music. A nice way to end off the day."

* * *

Music was the most entertaining subject they had all day. Ron was in awe of all the different instruments in the music room. The trio discovered that a few of their new friends were fairly talented musicians. Miss Glissan, their music teacher, explained the cirriculum for the term.

"You will be required spend the first four weeks of this term finishing off your piano and guitar units, then you'll swap instruments. Remember four pieces on your instrument, new students, you'll only need to do two. The tutorial books are where they usually are. Ron and Hermione, you can do piano. Harry, you do guitar. Just ask a few of the students to explain them to you."

The class divided into two. Harry had Catalina, Allen and James with him for guitar. The rest of them were in piano. James handed a guitar to Harry.

"Ever held one of these before?" he asked. Harry shook his head, as his fingers brushed over the guitar.

"Not really hard. But your fingers will kill" Allen said. He nodded over at Catalina, who was sliding her fingers up and down the finger board with ease. "None of us had any idea how to play the guitar. She's doing bar chords. She's really good at it, but then again, she plays the viola. We can help you with the basics"

Harry spent the rest of the double learning scales, and simple pieces with Allen and James. He learned not to place his fingers on the actual frets, not to drop the pick into the guitar, and he also improved the accuracy and speed of his fingers. Nearing the end of the period, Allen nodded.

"You're going well. We have to pack up now" he said, glancing at the clock on the wall. There was a frenzy as students packed up to hurry home. Miss Glissan made sure that each person put their books and instruments away neatly. Ron sat down next to Harry, quite pleased.

"Learning to hit keys isn't all that hard. I'm enjoying this muggle stuff" he said content.

"Ron, you were practically breaking the keyboard," Hermione said "I told you, you don't have to hit so hard." The bell rang and the students rushed off for home. There were a few quick goodbyes from their friends. They sat on the front steps of the school, waiting for their chauffer to arrive.

"So... what do you guys think of this so far?" Harry asked. Ron grinned.

"It's not as hard as Hermione made it out to be. I'm having fun"

"Well, it's only the first day" Hermione reminded him "the homework will come piling up soon. Plus we have those exams Lawrence had mentioned."

"Exams? When?" Ron asked surprised. Hermione shook her head.

"You don't listen do you? I asked Catalina and she said that the test was on this coming Thursday. She also said that there was no need to study, just grammar and punctuation, comprehension and all that stuff."

Ron's jaw dropped. He said something rude, but the sound of the limo coming had been louder. They slid into the limo and drove off home.

* * *

"So how was it?" George asked.

They were sitting around the table, eating dinner. Hermione was in the living room, getting a headstart on her homework, and making shre that the twins hadn't broken anything.

"It was all right," Ron said shrugging. "Interesting things though. Muggles are so..."

"Weird" Fred finished for him.

"We've been invited out with some of our friends," Harry said "they want us to go with them to the city."

Fred and George shared a look "We'll be coming with you." There was a loud groan from the living room, then Hermione entered the kitchen.

"You two can come but you better behave yourselves" she said sternly. George wagged a finger at her.

"Excuse me Granger, we're the guardians. We will not be bossed around by you, little girl," he said. Hermione scowled.

"Well then you should act like guardians. No silly stuff" she looked at the clock hanging on the wall "well I better get that homework finished," she said, quickly leaving the kitchen. Ron ate the last bit of his chicken and wiped his hands.

"Wait Hermione! Help me with my homework!" he called out into the living room. There was a frustrated shriek and Ron exited the kitchen.

"So what will you be doing?" Fred asked Harry.

"The homework's not due for a while now. I'll start it later" Harry replied. He went into the living room and switched on the t.v. He put up the volume as Hermione and Ron were having another homework battle. There were only five channels. Harry flicked through them all. Nothing really interesting. He got up, and decided to go to bed, leaving his two friends to bicker.


	6. Photos

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Woah. Hostile reviewers . I've updated so please don't kill me! Anyway, I might bend a few of the rules from the books, I can't remember them all, and I'd need to so my plot twist can work. So sorry in advance. My updates will also be even slower than they had been before (I didn't think it was possible. But my friend knows of a story that took three years . ), I'm writing an original story along side this one so yeah. But I do have the next chapter written up as well! Again, you'll have to wait a while for the updates. As soon as I reach 35 reviews, I'll update, or in three weeks. Whichever comes first (though I think it'll be the latter). Thanks for reading, thanks for the reviews! Keep them coming.

i-am-invisible- I think I know your name now!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the HP characters, but I have inserted figments of my imagination into this story. They're my characters :D

* * *

Harry rolled over in his bed. He had had a fitful sleep. He slowly opened his eyes and yawned. Getting up slowly, he looked at his watch. He swore softly to himself.

_8.20 am._

He quickly put on his school uniform and hurried out into the hallway. No one else was up yet. Still cursing to himself, he entered Ron's room and shook him violently.

"Ron, get up. We're going to be late for school!" Harry panicked. Ron just muttered something and rolled over. Harry shook him again, but he didn't budge. He heard someone running down the hall, then Hermione appeared, gasping for breath in the doorway. She had also put her uniform on hurriedly, her hair was a mess. There were purple bags under eyes. Not a pretty sight.

"I am going to kill the twins" she said between breaths. She rolled her eyes when she saw that Ron was still in bed. She stomped through the mess and shook him vigorously.

"Get up!" she yelled into his ear. Ron sat upright, and rubbed his eyes.

"Geez Hermione, no need to yell" Ron said, rubbing his ear "I don't get what all the- mmph!" he was cut off by a shirt hitting him in the face.

"Get dressed, we're going to be late!" Hermione commanded, throwing the rest his uniform at him. "This room is horrible! Clean it up in the afternoon" she straightened up a few things, and picked up a few things off the floor. She gave a satisfied nod and left the room, Harry following behind her. He rushed downstairs to get some breakfast. Hermione angrily stormed over to the twins' room. They were already up, just sitting and talking to each other.

"Oh. Good morning Hermione" Fred greeted cheerfully.

"How long have you been awake?" she asked in a low voice. George thought about it.

"Oh. Since 6.30 or some time around then" he replied after a while.

"Why am I not surprised" she said icily " it's 8.22! We're going to be late thanks you you!" Fred contained a laugh and George sighed.

"Well" George started slowly "you did say that you never wanted us to wake you up, ever again. So we decided to respect your wishes"

"As it says in the good parenting book" Fred continued. He held up a small book, with bold letters that read _How to be a good parent: the key to understanding your child._ " Quote: the problem with most guardians/parents, is that they don't respect the wishes of their child/ward. To be a good parent, you must know when to respect their wishes, and know the limits of their requests." Hermione didn't even listen to him. She let out a frustrated screech and hurried off downstairs.

"We made your lunch already! No need to thank us!" George called after her.

She reached the bottom of the stairs, and immediately began to pour some cereal for herself. Ron was still waking up properly.

"We've got five minutes" Harry said "the drive takes another five minutes. So we should be there just in time" Hermione quickly spooned her breakfast into her mouth. She was packing her bag at the same time.

"Woah... slow down Hermione" Ron said, still a little drowsy "we're going to get there in time"

"Oh just shut up and keep eating!" Hermione snapped. She checked over her things and put her bowl in the sink. "I'll wash that up later. Oh hurry up you two!" she rushed out the door and slammed it shut.

"Talk about stressed" Ron muttered. Harry nodded, then quickly left his bowl in the sink. Ron was sifting his spoon through the cereal.

"Come on let's go!" Harry said, stuffing the spoon into Ron's mouth and placing the bowl into the sink. Ron indignantly slung his bag over his shoulder and followed Harry out the door.

* * *

Ron and Harry endured Hermione's worried ramblings on the ride to school. They arrived with a few minutes to spare, then headed over to their friends. Catalina glanced at them from behind her book, then did a double take.

"Gosh. What happened to you Hermione?" she asked.

"Why? What's wrong?" Hermione said testily. Catalina gestured to Hermione's hair, as if it was self explanatory.

"You do realise that the school photos are on today?" Allen said cautiously. Harry observed the group. They did look a little different from yesterday, hair was neater, uniforms were actually in good condition. Hermione groaned.

"Why didn't you tell me that yesterday?" she asked, banging her head against the wall.

Catalina shrugged "We presumed you'd know." Harry remembered that Hermione pinned up an events list. He recalled that school photos was marked on there. It didn't really matter to him. There was no way he could control his hair anyway.

"Oh geez you two" Siobhan said "here, let me help you Hermione" she pulled out a comb and began to brush through Hermione's hair. Eleanor headed over to the group, her curly red hair looking perfect. Hermione saw this and continued to bang her head. It strangely reminded Harry of Dobby. Eleanor delicately pulled one.

"I don't know why I bother" she told them "it always ends up getting wrecked by the time the photos are taken."

"I don't notice the difference" Tim muttered. Eleanor punched him lightly.

"I wouldn't expect you to understand" she said snobbily. She took a look at Hermione. Her eyes widened, but she refrained from saying anything. The bell rang and James beckoned them towards the hall.

"We have an assembly today, first period," he said. They headed off towards the hall, when Harry stopped.

"Where's Lawrence?" he asked.

James shrugged "Probably late, as usual. I expected more of a prefect"

"He's a prefect?" Ron asked, surprised. Tim nodded

"Yeah. He's actually quite popular. I guess it's because of the sports and activities he does" they joined the throng of people trying to get into the hall. "We better get a move on. There won't be any seats left" Tim pushed through the crowd, the others struggled to follow him. They ended up sitting in the front row, Tim, on the floor ("This is not fair. I'm the one who did all the pushing!") The chatter that filled the hall soon diminished, as the deputy principal approaced the lecturn on the stage.

"Students be quiet" he barked into the microphone. Silence prevailed, and he switched to a calmer tone. "Good morning students. We have a few notices and awards to hand out today."

The next half hour was spent talking about upcoming events, and many certificates were awarded. Harry yawned, and almost drifted off to sleep, when Hermione nudged him.

"As you all know, school photos are being taken today" the deputy announced. There was a collective groan. "The photographers are setting up now. Here is the order of class. Year 9, Year 10, and so on. Yr 7 will come a fter Year 12 and Year 8 will be last.There will also be an extended lunch for staff photos" There was a loud cheer and the deputy yelled into the microphone "Quiet students! You will now be heading off to your classes, you will be called down when it is your turn for photos." The students all stood, and headed outside. As they went to their classes, Lawrence came running up behind James.

"What did I miss?" he asked panting.

"Oh nothing much," Siobhan said "you know, the usual. What to do with bomb scares, the random prize give away..."

"No seriously," Lawrence asked, still catching his breath, "did I miss anything?"

"School photos will be on in period 6" Harry told him. Lawrence gave a sigh of relief, as they entered the classroom. They had math. Harry realised that Catalina wasn't as excited about this subject as she was with all the others. Ron took a seat, making sure not to sit next to Hermione, who was stressed enough as it was.

"This is all easy stuff. Counting. I'm going to win this bet" he whispered to Harry. The teacher entered. He was a bald man, quite short. He wrote a page number on the board.

"To those new students, I'm Mr Baum. Class, turn to page 278 in your text books" he immediately lanched into a talk on algebra, explaining different concepts and telling them to take notes. When he set them the exercises, Ron's eyes were bulging.

"I hate maths" he said under his breath. "Why do they call them pro numerals? They're letters!" Allen gave him a sympathetic pat on the back.

"You're not the only one" he said "just ask Lawrence for help with it"

Hermione was going well with it. She couldn't help being happy that she was better than Catalina at this subject. Harry occasionally asked Lawrence for help. He was really good. The class packed up five minutes early, the teacher didn't really seem to care.

They headed off to science for next period. Catalina was in her element. Unfortunately for her, she was sitting between Stella and Adam, who were both going to great lengths 'not talking to each other'. They were seated in groups of threes, in a typical science lab. They did different experiments. Stella was talking to the top of her voice again.

"My dad's second cousin, twice removed is a chemist" she droned. Catalina rolled her eyes and tried to focus on her work. Miss Dule, their science teacher, passed the tables, looking a little irritated.

"Stella, shut up" she said shortly.

"Is she allowed to say that to a student?" Harry asked Tim, who was in front.

"She's very... upfront" he replied.

Ron poured and mixed chemicals"Reminds me of potions" he muttered "but a little easier." he picked up some magnesium, and was about to boil it.

"Ron!" Hermione said sharply "Don't touch that!" she quickly took the magnesium from him. "It's produces a blinding flash you know" Ron rollled his eyes. Thankfully, the bell rang and they all went to roll call. A few notes were handed out during this time, then the bell rang again, signalling recess. Tim and Siobhan were at the bottom of the stairs.

"We have recess to prepare for photos," Siobhan said as Ron approached. He shrugged in reply. They waited for the rest of the group to arrive, before heading outside. Eleanor and Siobhan coaxed Hermione into coming with them to the toilet.

"Why do you all need to go at the same time?" Ron asked.

"We're going to do Hermione's hair for photos" Eleanor said, bringing a colourful bag with her. The three girls headed off to the toilet. Catalina sat down and pulled out her book.

"Why aren't you going with them?" Ron asked Catalina. She scowled.

"I'm not into that sort of thing" she said simply "I mean, who really cares about hair. It's just a stupid school photo."

"Says the girl who was obsessing over her streaks" James observed.

"Streaks are different. They can tell a lot about your personality."

"Right..." Allen said unconvinced. Catalina rolled her eyes and returned to her book. A short while later, the girls came back from the toilet. They'd managed to do up Hermione's hair into a fashionable bun. Siobhan looked thoughtful.

"Come on Catalina, let's tie up your hair," she reached out to gather Catalina's hair, who pulled away. She continued to move away from Siobhan, then finally gave up and surrendered to the pony tail.

"It's going to get wrecked anyway, we have sport" she muttered.

"So why do you guys look all messed up today?" Lawrence asked "No offence or anything" Ron huffed as he thought back to that morning.

"Woke up late" Harry muttered.

Tim nodded in understanding "that happens a lot to me too. But I always managed to get to school in time anyway."

"So are we all in for this Saturday?" Siobhan asked as she tied up Catalina's hair.

"Well, we're all okay" Catalina said "we just have to make sure with the newbies"

"Yeah we can go" Harry replied "but our guardians will be coming as well" there was silence for a minute, before James spoke.

"They're not like... all over protective and fun spoilers are they?" he asked slowly.

Ron smiled "No. Well I'm not sure actually. Depends. They're determined to be 'responsible guardians'. They haven't been doing a good job though"

Lawrence raised an eyebrow "So your parents aren't with you? Are you in an exchange program system?"

"Ron's brothers are here as our guardians" Hermione explained. Siobhan perked up.

"Ooo. How old?" she asked excitedly. Eleanor rolled her eyes.

"Don't even try" she said "that's just wrong." The bell rang, and they all headed off to period four and five. Double sport. They all headed to the change rooms. Ron was unfamiliar with the process.

"What are we doing?" he asked Harry.

"We have to change into our sport uniforms" Harry replied. Tim nodded.

"Yeah. I guess you don't have this type of thing in the country," he grinned "we're doing tennis!" The boys headed out of the change room. When they headed over to the tennis courts, the girls were already there. Two stands with raquets were sitting in the middle of the tennis court. Allen picked one up, and twirled it in his hands.

"Get your tennis raquets and split up into two groups" the tennis coach announced. His assistant stood over to one side, directing them to line up. Harry ended up with Siobhan, Allen, Catalina and James. The tennis assistant wasn't really all that good at coaching. Their group just ended up bludging. Allen, however, had encouraged his friends to play a game with him.

"Let's play. Crap people against me and Siobhan" he suggested. James shook his head.

"You guys can just play doubles" he said "I'm not really that much into tennis. Play girls against guys. You'll have an experienced player on each team."

Catalina sighed "Okay. We all know I can't play tennis. So can we bend the rules a bit?"

"Sure" Allen replied "but we all know me and Harry are going to win"

"Whatever" Siobhan said. They stood on either side of the net, Catalina's serve first. She bounced the ball once, raised her raquet, and hit the ball hard. It whizzed right past Harry's head, and got stuck in the fence.

"Can't play tennis my-"

"Yeah I should've warned you about her serves" Allen said sheepishly "she hits too hard."

"Sorry!" Catalina called from the other end of the court. She served again, this time, the ball hit another boy.

"Owww..." he said, rubbing his arm. Catalina grimaced.

"Sorry Cameron!" she called out again. The boy raised his hand. Catalina went over to see what damage she'd done. After being reassured that he was fine, Siobhan took the ball off Catalina.

"I think it's best if I serve first" Siobhan suggested. She hit a serve, and Allen returned it backhand. They began a rally. Harry was impressed by their skill. Catalina put her raquet down and waved her arms to the oblivious tennis players.

"You two might as well play by yourselves" she said loudly. She walked off the court, and went to sit in the umpire chair on the sidelines of the other group. Harry went over to sit next to James.

"They're really good" Harry commented. James nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. It's kinda scary. Their longest rally was eight minutes long." Fifteen minutes before the double ended, they packed up and changed clothes. Hermione walked out, looking disappointed. She gestured to her hair.

"It's already ruined I guess" she said shruging. Eleanor pulled out some gel, and a comb, and began to work on Hermione's hair again. Siobhan examined herself in a mini mirror, and even Tim straightened up his tie a bit. Catalina was red in the face from running. Her hair was everywhere. James let out a low whistle.

"You're going to take a photo looking like that?" he asked. She looked confused, then stood behind Siobhan and looked at her reflection.

"Oh stuff it" she said and pulled her hair out of the pony tail. She shook her head as if she was in a shampoo ad. The others cheered. "Oh shut up. Come on. We have to go to the quad" They headed to the quadrangle outside Building E. They lined up in their roll call classes, and headed into the building.

* * *

Harry had been excited by school photos. The Dursleys had never paid for one of his own. He shuddered to even think of them displaying his picture along side of theirs. He'd taken the class photos, but never an individual one. So he was quite disappointed when he just sat on the stool and said 'cheese'. It was all done in less than a minute, and he went over to his friends who'd already had theirs taken. He quickly realised that school photos were good for nothing, except bludging.

"I bet you my eyes are closed" Tim said.

"Well at least they'll come out the proper colour" Catalina pointed out. Siobhan looked at her questioningly.

"Yeah, that's strange" she said "your eyes are blue and they come out black."

"Oh my gosh!" Eleanor exclaimed, happily skipping over to them "this year my hair was perfect! Perfect I tell you! It will be a perfect picture!" No one bothered to tell her, that a large strand of hair was sticking up. Lawrence disguised his laugh as a cough. The photos were all taken, then they headed outside for lunch.

"Ohhhh I'm bored!" Eleanor said, for the fifth time during lunch. She leaned against the wall and stroked Siobhan's bag, who pulled it away.

"Stop it" she said in a dangerous voice. Eleanor rolled her eyes and began to fiddle with some paper. "So - freaking - bored" she groaned while ripping the paper.

"We could play Truth or Dare, personality switch" Allen suggested. The others all complained, but Lawrence just shrugged.

"Whatever. Let's just past the time" he said. He took a bottle from his bag, and twisted it. It spun for a while, before landing on James.

"Ok. I'll be Tim" he announced. He took a bite from his sandwich, and began impersonating Tim's eating habits. The others laughed.

"I don't know which scares me more" Hermione said "you choosing to be Tim, or the fact that you can actually impersonate him"

"I always knew they shared a brain" Catalina added. The others burst out laughing.

"Truth or dare?" Lawrence asked. James chewed for a bit, then swallowed.

"Truth. It's more fun that way."

"Okay. What do you think of Stella?"

James put on a guilty face "I love Stella" he said dramatically "because I'm Tim and I'm a complete weirdo." Tim scowled, and launched himself at James. The two began fighting, when Stella showed up next to them.

"Who loves me?" she asked. Eleanor coughed.

"Tim does" she said sweetly.

"No I do-" Tim began, but he was interrupted. Stella smiled shyly at him, before skipping off. The others laughed, James loudest of all

"Oh that is classic" he said between breaths.

"Argh. She'll never leave me alone now" Tim shuddered "Ew... me liking Stella!" This brought on more laughter, then the bell rang. They headed off for double art.

* * *

They continued on with their drawings. Lawrence was engrossed in his work. In a short while, he got an easel, and placed it at the head of their table. He immediately began painting his drawing. Allen looked up in surprise.

"You're up to the painting stage already?" he asked. Lawrence nodded, never taking his eyes off his paper. Occasionally, he'd glance up to look at Harry. James chuckled.

"Geez Lawrence, what's up with the sudden interest in Harry?" he said slyly.

"Shut up" Lawrence retorted. James raised an eyebrow.

"What? No sarcasm? No insults?" he asked in disbelief.

"That's Catalina's department."

Catalina's head shot up "Someone call me?"

"Insult James for me" Lawrence said to her.

Catalina sighed "James, I'm sorry. You're just too boring for Lawrence. He likes Harry now, so curb the jealousy okay? We're still all friends here. Respect Lawrence's decision" Lawrence looked away from his work and glared at Catalina. She smiled innocently.

"Excuse me?" Harry said in an offended tone.

"See James? Harry's much more polite. No wonder you were dumped"

Harry gave an evil grin and crumpled up a piece of paper, ready to throw it at her. Lawrence went one step further, and dipped his in paint. James held her still as the other boys took aim.

"This is not nice!" she said squirming.

"Can I throw something too?" Ron asked grinning. Catalina kicked him under the desk. "Ouch. No need for that. It was just a joke."

"On the count of three" Lawrence smiled wolfishly, trying to sound serious.

"You're so mean" Catalina said at last relaxing. You can't stop the inevitable. The boys took aim at her head. At last second, she moved her head to the side. The paper ended up hitting James.

"No throwing paper around" Mrs Reicher said, as she went about creating her own masterpiece.

"Okay you guys, Catalina's sorry now" Eleanor said "you don't have to kill her anymore"

They settled back to their drawings, discussing things like camp, siblings, assignments (or lack thereof), and exams. Hermione was particularly interested in this area. Ron rolled his eyes, as Hermione began talking about the upcoming MAT task.

"So what is it on? Is it hard?" Hermione asked. Tim rolled his eyes.

"Could we not talk about exams?" he pleaded "I really don't like them.

"What does MAT stand for anyway?" Harry asked.

"Mathematical Assesment Task" Catalina answered. She was onto painting now as well, along with Siobhan.

"I thought that we had the English one up first" Hermione said confused

"Nope. It's the MAT. And I'm glad I can get it over with"

The first period was over, they began the second. Mrs Reicher suddenly stopped working. She cleared her throat and waited for the class to be quiet.

"Class, I forgot to mention. I believe there are only four of you who've started the painting stage" she did a quick count and nodded "anyway, I want you to insert something mythical into your paintings. You can portray your subject as something myseterious and magical as well."

"Yeah. I'll draw Tim as a pig with wings" James muttered.

"Your drawing already looks like it" Catalina remarked. He jabbed her in the ribs, and she jumped.

"Have you paid for the excursions and camp yet?" Eleanor asked Hermione, trying to distract Catalina from making anymore snide comments. Hermione nodded.

"Yes. I paid for them as soon as we came"

"You've got excellent planning skills" Catalina said. Hermione raised an eyebrow, and Catalina raised her arms in defence. "No sarcasm. Seriously"

"Allen, could you pass me the blue paint next to you?" Lawrence asked.

"No, it's ok. I won't" Allen started. Lawrence scowled.

"Allen, pass me the paint" he said coldly.

"No really, I don't mind"

"Allen, pass me the damn paint already!" Lawrence said angrily, throwing a paintbrush at him. It hit Allen on the head, and left a dark red streak on his blonde hair. Allen's eyes widened.

"Woah... agro" he murmmured, passing the paint. Lawrence smiled at him, then continued painting. Allen made some very rude gestures, which then provoked Lawrence to add multicoloured streaks to Allen's hair. Green, blue and red were dashed here and there.

"You could've gotten streaks off Lawrence for free" Tim said to Catalina.

"I'm going to have to wash my hair" Allen said frowning.

"Oh... Poor you" Siobhan said sarcastically. The class packed up their equipment. Ron examined his drawing. It wasn't bad for a wizard who'd never been exposed to the art that muggles had. He smiled in satisfaction.

"You're pretty good Ron" Eleanor said. She moved to peek at Lawrence's art. He fended her off with a paintbrush. "Gosh. So touchy" she backed away, unwilling to get the colourful streaks he'd given Allen. The bell rang, and they headed outside.

"Tomorrows early day, don't forget" Catalina called as she ran out. "We'll be going around the suburb after school, so you can come if you want" she gave one last wave and sprinted to the train station.

* * *

Harry and Ron sat in the living room, doing homework. Fred and George were on the computer, surfing the net. Hermione was still giving them the cold shoulder. She entered the room, her hands full with two plastic bags. Harry went over to see what was inside them. Hermione pulled out a red alarm clock, and sat it on the table. She'd bought five of them. Ron picked one up. He was about to rattle it, when Hermione snatched it off him.

"Don't touch just yet" she said, setting it back on the table. The twins took an interest and came over as well. "These are alarm clocks" Hermione said "you can set the time, and a bell will go off when that time comes"

"Will I be getting one?" Ron asked excitedly. Hermione picked up the white alarm clock and handed it to him.

"I'll set it to 7.30," she said, twisting the dial on the back, "there's a snooze button. It stops the ringing for a while, but it'll go off until you turn it off. This button turns the alarm clock off, and this is how you can set the time." Ron nodded and took his upstairs, like a child with a new toy. Hermione handed Harry a black one. "You know how to use it" she said. She took the red one and brought it upstairs. Fred looked disappointed.

"Do we get one?" George yelled up at her.

"No!" she called over her shoulder. George looked crestfallen. Fred shook his head.

"After all we do for you, so ungrateful" he said in a disappointed tone, "but we'll continue to be good guardians" he whispered something to George, who's eyes immediately lit up.

"Yes. We'll give them that nice surprise. I feel bad about this morning." he agreed, grinning. Harry looked at the two in confusion. Most of their pranks were harmless. Annoying, but harmless. He'd be able to survive another one.

* * *

Names:

Lawrence Aiden

Timothy Grent

Siobhan Hever

James Li

Catalina Mae

Allen Portam

Eleanor Tuller


	7. PE Day

AUTHORS NOTE: Heh. I didn't think that anyone would care about alarm clocks. So observant. It's rather insignificant that there are five, but you'll find out in the next chapter. Don't get your hopes high, it's nothing big. Anyway, thanks for reading and thanks so much for the reviews. I've managed to keep this note short. For once. :D

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any of the HP characters. But I own everyone else.

_Ring Ring._

Harry woke up immediately. The alarm clock read 7.30. Wanting no repeats of the previous day, Harry got up and did his morning routine. He looked around for his watch, and realised that he'd left it in the toilet after his shower. He met Hermione in the hallway, who was knocking on the bathroom door.

"George, hurry up" she said.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be out in a moment," he replied. They had all managed to get organised, and in a relaxed way as well. Ron was going on and on about the alarm clock at breakfast. Hermione narrowed her eyes.

"You'll probably get sick of it after a while" she predicted, washing up the dishes. She stared out the window, then frowned in confusion. "That's odd. The sun's just come up."

"They have daylight savings time" Harry reminded her "maybe it's different here"

"Hmmm. Maybe" she said thoughtfully. After a while, she shrugged. "I decided we could catch the bus today. We'd get there on time."

"Bus?" Ron asked "Like... those long cars?"

"Yeah, more or less."

"Oh. Okay" he said smiling. Hermione stared at the ceiling.

"You know," she started "I'm suspecting that the twins are up to something. It's way too quiet. You don't think it's anything bad do you?"

Ron huffed "Oh stop worrying Hermione. We're up in time, and they've shut up. Make the most of it."

"Mmm. I guess" she said. She cracked a smile. "Harry, you have the map to the bus stop don't you?" he nodded, and fished it out of his bag. "Good. I think the bus comes every fifteen minutes. Let's go now," they headed towards the door, and left the building. Harry was the last to leave.

"We're going to school now!" he called to the empty house. He thought it was a bit weird that the twins weren't doing anything. Maybe they had actually decided to stop meddling. The whole 'good guardianship' act wasn't going very well at all.

They walked down to the bus stop. It wasn't very far from the house. Harry noted that Allajuah was a quiet suburb. It was also fairly small. They took a seat and waited for the bus to arrive. Hermione looked over her time table.

"We finish at two today" she said, scanning down the period times,"It seems that's the only early day we have"

"A whole hour early" Ron sighed, letting out a low whistle "that's okay."

"We're going around the town with Tim and all them today as well" Harry said happily. The bus arrived. It was blue and white, a State Transit logo was printed clearly on the side. They boarded the bus, Hermione paid for their tickets. The seats were blue and red. There weren't many people on the bus. A business man, a student who attended a distant school, and an old lady. The bus driver seemed a little surprised to see them.

"You go to Pemet High right?" he asked, surveying their uniforms. Hermione nodded "and you live in Allajuah?" another nod. The bus driver looked at her skeptically for a minute, before she headed to the back of the bus.

"What was that about?" Harry asked.

Hermione shrugged "Not sure."

"This is like a cross between a train and a car" Ron said, looking around him.

"The trains aren't all like the Hogwarts Express Ron" Hermione told him. "They're more developed."

"Will we be going on a train sometime soon?" he asked.

"We're going to meet at Pemet train station on Saturday, so I guess so" Harry replied.

The journey took around half an hour. It was an all stop bus. More people began to appear, yet it was still fairly quiet. They at last, arrived at school. No students seemed to be there. They went around the grounds, searching for people.

"Well, it's still eight" Hermione said shrugging. "They'll probably come later."

They waited for half an hour, and still no students. Harry checked his watch. 8.30. Ron was perplexed.

"I don't get it. Are you sure that school doesn't start later?" he asked. Harry had a sneaking suspicion as to what was going on. They saw Catalina approaching, a red viola case in her hand. She looked at them in question.

"What are you guys doing here so early?" she asked. Hermione looked at her in confusion.

"What do you mean? It's 8.30." she replied. Catalina stared at them as if they were crazy.

"It's 7.30. I'm here because there's an orchestra rehearsal every Wednesday morning," she said slowly. Realisation dawned on Ron's face.

"They've done it again!" he slammed his hand on the silver seat. Hermione looked angry.

"We need to have a serious discussion with them" she muttered. Catalina looked puzzled.

"Well, you can tell me about it later," she said hesitantly "I've got to go. I'm late for rehearsal. If you went upstairs, you would've seen that there are a few people here. Orchestra musicians are supposed to be punctual," she waved and ran into the buildling. Hermione was fuming.

"Remind me to call your mother and Percy when we get home" she said.

"Do I have permission to kill them?" Ron asked.

"Um, I don't think your mother would be happy with that" Harry murmmured. He reset his watch to the correct time, and waited for school to begin. Only an hour more to go.

* * *

"Are you serious? That's a good prank, I should try it on my little sister," Allen said in admiration. 

They had maths first period. Hermione was telling them about that morning's ordeal. She was determined to do something about the twins. Siobhan laughed.

"At least they have a sense of humour" she smiled "lighten up a bit. You'll be laughing about it in a few days time anyway."

"Are you saying that because you have a crush on them?" Eleanor asked. Siobhan scowled at her and Tim shrugged.

"I was about to say the same thing," he said "I'm looking forward to meeting those two."

"They need to be dealt with" Hermione said, more to herself than to the others. The bell rang, and they headed off to double P.E.

"We have a triple today" Siobhan told them "two practicals and a theory. That's basically one day of P.E a week."

In the practical (which was the double) they were doing athletics. There was discus, shot put, long jump, javelin, hurdles, and sprints. Ron looked around him. They were split up into groups of five. Harry was with Ron, Hermione, Eleanor and Lawrence.

"What is all of this?" Ron whispered to Harry.

"These are a few different muggle sports" Harry told him. Lawrence explained each of the different sports to them. Lawrence told his friends to stand back.

"Okay, watch me" he said. He held the discus, hand on top. He swerved and threw it. It flew more than halfway across the pitch. Ron picked up the discus and weighed it in both hands. He took the stance that Lawrence had demonstrated, and let fly. It landed half way across the field.

"Woah. You're pretty good Weasley," Lawrence said, clapping him on the back. Hermione and Harry weren't very good. Theirs landed only a few metres away from them. Eleanor grimaced.

"I've always been bad at this" she said. She picked up her discuss and threw it. It just dropped straight to the ground. "See?" she told them, picking it up. They had a few more goes, then the teacher, Mr Mason, blew the whistle. They went on to javelin next. Lawrence demonstrated again.

"Stand back" he said, bringing the javelin back past his ear. He took a step forward, and threw it. It landed, point in dirt, standing up. Again, it had made it halfway across the field. The trio attempted this and found that they couldn't get the javelin to plant itself in the ground. Theirs didn't travel very far. Eleanor ended up poking Lawrence in the stomach.

"You shouldn't be standing that close" she said to him. He gave her a disbelieving look. He was at least a metre and a half behind her. Hermione very determinedly threw hers with great momentum. They did it a few more times before moving to hurdles.

"You should already know how to do this" Lawrence said, picking up a timer. "I'll go down the other end and time Eleanor. We take turns" he ran down to the other end of the field. Hermione picked up a timer as well.

"You can watch first" she told Ron, "just watch Harry do the hurdling, then he can time you and you can have a go."

"Okay" Ron said, sitting down. Harry stood in front of the hurdles. He could see Hermione down the other end of the field, one hand raised. She brought it down, the signal. Harry immediately started on the first hurdle. He did pretty well. He only knocked over one halfway. As he neared the end, he saw a blur out of the corner of his eye. Catalina was on the sprint track, already a few metres in front of him by the time he figured out who it was. He knocked over the last hurdle. Hermione clicked the stop watch.

"58 seconds" she said to him, restarting the watch. She handed it to him "it's Ron's turn"

"Did you see Catalina run?" Harry asked her. She nodded.

"Yeah. She's pretty fast. 12 seconds."

Ron stood at the other end of the hurdles track, waiting for the signal. Harry brought his hand down. Ron was... awful, to put it politely. He knocked down most of the hurdles, and got a time of 1.35. They all had a go. Eleanor got the fastest time, followed by Harry, then Lawrence, Hermione and finally Ron. The whistle was blown and they moved onto the sprints. Tim handed the stop watch to Lawrence.

"I hate sprinting," he said. He tapped the screen of the watch. "12 seconds. And she was tired today!" Lawrence grinned. Siobhan came up to them, panting. She dropped the stop watch and dropped onto her back.

"Argh" she said rolling over "I hate athletics" she said.

"Miss Hever, get up" their teacher called out. Siobhan rolled her eyes and got up. "Get on to the next stage" Eleanor waved her off. She picked up a stop watch and pointed to the other end of the field.

"Start from over there" she said. Lawrence and Harry headed up to the other end of the field.

"You good at sprinting?" Lawrence asked. Harry shrugged.

"I run when I need to" he replied. Lawrence nodded.

"I'm better at cross country" he told Harry. They reached the other end of the track. "So do you want to race?"

"Yeah. Sure."

They signalled that they were ready. The girls raised their arms, and brought them down. Harry and Lawrence began to run. They were pretty close, but Harry ended up winning. Lawrence grinned.

"Good race" he said, getting his breath back. He turned to Eleanor "what was my time?"

"13.88" she said. She peered over Hermione's shoulder "You got 13.40" she said to Harry. He took the watch off Hermione, and Ron headed up with her. They ended up getting the same order of speed, although this time, Ron wasn't as slow. Again, the whistle blew, and they moved onto shot put. Eleanor picked up a shot put, seemingly without any effort, and dropped it lightly in Hermione's hands. She grimaced.

"Oh that's heavy."

None of them were really good at shot put. They were all average. The shot put area was out of sight of the teacher, so they sat down and watched the long jumpers. James was standing, prepared to run.

"You suck!" Lawrence called out, just before Tim began the run up. He stopped mid step.

"Oh yeah?" Tim yelled back "Well you suck di-"

"Tim!" Siobhan interrupted sternly "don't say it. Just get on with it" Tim gave a final glare at Lawrence and resumed his place. He ran up to the yellow line, and ended up falling in. Lawrence held back a laugh, and Eleanor slapped her head. They made running commentary on their friends, as they all jumped into the sand pit. Catalina was jumping up and down on the spot.

"Beat your personal best!" Eleanor yelled. Catalina smiled. She ran up to the sand pit, then jumped. She got 3.50 m. Allen let out a low whistle. They moved on to their next activities, Ron was eager to try long jumping after he'd seen his friends do it. They got all got pretty average scores again.  
"It's a pity that you're only going to have one athletics lesson" Lawrence said "we're going to start cross country next week."

Mr Mason called them back to the seats, and began talking to them about the athletics carnival, due to take place in the next few weeks. The three magicians wouldn't be there for it though. They headed off to roll call, then recess.

* * *

Harry stared around the classroom. Another English lesson. Mr Reeve was rambling on, again. All Harry could hear was 'ablah blah blah metaphors blah blah onomatopoeia blah blah blah'. He could see that Ron's eyes were drooping, and Tim was drawing on the table. Siobhan and James were playing hangman, and even Hermione seemed to look a little bored. 

"The cirriculum requires you to do a homework assignment," Mr Reeve suddenly said. He anticipated the loud protests and complaints from the students. He raised his hand for silence. "I'm not very big on homework. I set it rarely, and only because the cirriculum requires it. Be excited students! You're going to write me poems for this assignment!"

"Poetry?" Ron asked incredulous. He whispered to Harry "how is poetry useful to muggles? Why do we even need to study it at all?"

"I haven't a clue" Harry replied.

"Settle down" Mr Reeve said, quieting down the students again. "Two poems. Two different forms. Maximum 20 lines, minimum 5. I'll be marking you on your use of poetic devices. I suggest to the new students, seeing as you've only had a language book lesson, that you catch up on the work that we've done previously. You've had a little reminder of the poetic devices today. You've also got to analyse a poem, _The Highway man_. One page, 12 pt font times new roman," he checked his watch "the bell is not far away, so you can pack up and talk _quietly._"

The class lazily packed up. Chatter immediately began to fill the room, and Mr Reeve concentrated on his Sudoku. Eleanor passed her English book to Hermione.

"You can have a flick through. I've taken all the notes," Eleanor said.

James snickered "You can pass anything as poetry. Just as long as it has paragraphs, and long words, you're in the clear." A girl from another table looked up from her writing.

"Don't dis the poetry Li" she said in an offended tone "just because you suck at it. Don't listen to him Granger, poetry is cool."

"Whatever Dana. I have the right to my own opinion" James replied. Mr Reeve looked up from his Sudoku.

"I hear a debate" he said "which reminds me, our next subject after poetry will be debating. You might want to start having a look into public speaking," before anyone could say a word, the bell rang and they went off to Technology. They resumed their seats at the computers. Miss Wills came in with a large folder.

"Good..." she started. She looked at her watch. She waited a few minutes before continuing "afternoon students" she said. "I have the due dates for your exercises, you might want to put them into your diaries." She called out a few dates, then talked to them about their project.

"You must produce a video clip, on any subject you like. The multimedia guide in the back of the booklet will explain the different features you can apply, music, special effects, animated gifs etc. I will be allowing you to take the USBs home for this. Minimmum is 40 seconds" she said "it will be due sometime during the middle of next term, luckily for you. I expect that the exercies should be done the week after next, so you will have ample time to complete this assignment."

Miss Wills left the room, leaving her class to their work. Catalina looked over the marking criteria for their assignment.

"On anything we want eh?" she said, skimming down the list. "Easy enough. So what do you want to do it on?"

Harry thought about it. He wasn't particularly sure. He could see Hermione and Ron going through their choices, rationally for once. "Do they have any suggestions?" he asked.

"Well.." she said, flipping through the booklet some more "I'm not particularly fond of using the ideas in this booklet. I don't think you'll even be staying long enough to be here for the marking of the assignment. So come up with something, and I'll show you a few tricks on the computer." Harry mulled it over some more. Something that interested him. He couldn't do anything concerning Defence Against the Dark Arts unfortunately. And most of the other things that he wanted to do were wizarding associated.

"Can we make it on wizards and witches?" he asked. Catalina nodded.

"Yeah. We can do a bit of research, but it'll be fun," she agreed. She immediately set to work, showing Harry how to use the flash player, how to make animated icons, and the different types of video and picture files. He was hypnotised by the end of the lesson. Catalina pushed in her chair and headed to the door. "I'll show you different sound files tomorrow. Wait, no. We have the MAT task tomorrow. I'll show you next Monday. We might even get to record something."

They had the single P.E period next. The class seemed to be slightly uncomfortable. The girls sat away from the boys and vice versa. Ron was fairly confused.

"Is there some sort of seating thing?" he asked Siobhan as she passed him by. She shook her head.

"No. Nothing like that" she told him "we're just doing the puberty thing. You know. The body talk." Ron was still looking at her confused. "What? Didn't they give you lessons like that in the country?" Ron shook his head and Siobhan's eyes widened. She chuckled "it's more comfortable if we sit away for each other. You'll see in a while."

Harry did realise rather quickly. Ron was rather amazed at what they taught in muggle schools. Some of the students carried on rather immaturely.

"Oh stop being such children," Miss Acton said when they would grimace and giggle "it's all nature. Get used to it," she seemed very content teaching the subject. It was a very long lesson. The students were relieved when the bell rang, and they all ran outside. Ron walked slowly to the door with Harry.

"My mind has been soiled," he said softly, like one traumatised. Harry nodded. No one ever really talked about the P.E lesson, Harry noticed. Lucky it was a short day. Catalina, Lawrence and Tim were absent at lunch.

"Where are they?" Hermione asked. James jerked his head in the direction of the computer room.

"They're probably in there" he replied "they heard about his online riddle site. Once again, they've made a bet."

"They've got bad habits, but I suppose that they'll grow out of it," Allen observed. At the second half of lunch, Tim came out of the computer room, shaking his head.

"Those two are mad! Completely obsessed. I'm sick of listening to computer jargon," he said, plopping down. Eleanor passed him a container of lasagne and a fork. She gave him a few table napkins as well.

"I bought your lunch like you asked me. Remember, chew with your mouth closed and don't talk at all. Wipe your face when you're done," she directed. Tim rolled his eyes, but did as he was instructed. As soon as he was finished, he began complaining.

"You know, ever since yesterday with that stupid truth or dare, Stella's been stalking me," he muttered darkly.

"Yeah" Ron said "I saw how she was hanging around you in computers. Sure made Adam happy."

"I much prefered it when they were bickering," Catalina said approaching "you know what this means. She'll be following us around Pemet after school."

"Well, it was your fault" Allen said.

"It was Eleanor's fault actually."

The group turned to look at Eleanor, who raised her hands in defence "You all thought it was funny at the time" she accused.

"It was" Siobhan said nodding "but if she does end up following us, then you're taking her Eleanor."

"I doubt that she'll come along anyway," Eleanor said shruggging "we can always lose her very easily anyway. No problems."

Hermione was eagerly memorising Eleanor's notes. She also had her math text book in front of her, studying for the MAT. Allen looked over her shoulder at the notes she was taking down. Allen snatched the notes from Hermione, who glowered at him. He read the first few lines and made a face.

"They are only supposed to be notes you know," he said "there's no point in copying down the whole thing."

"I like to be thorough" she responded icily. Catalina grabbed the notes off James. She read them as well.

"Well this isn't being thorough, this is just crazy. Try paraphrasing," she advised, handing the notes back to Hermione. She scowled at them all and packed away her books.

"I don't want to fail tomorrow," she said, picking up her bag. "I'll be in the library" she told them. Just before she could leave, the bell rang. They went to double language, in which they were learning French. None of them were too worried with this subject. The teacher was just repeating things, over and over again. Harry counted down the minutes to the bell. Very quietly, the students began to pack up. Mr Pierre didn't notice this, he kept on babbling on. Finally, the bell rang and they all left the school.

* * *

Pemet, like Allajuah was a fairly small suburb. There were no shopping complexes anywhere, just rows of shopping strips. No high buildings blocked out the viiew, and only a few cars were on the road. The ten friends roamed the streets. They came to a stop infront of a Gloria Jeanscoffee shop. Lawrence pushed the door open, and they followed. 

It was a nice setting, dimly lit. Two storeys of coffee tables, lounges and red carpet. Harry recognised other Pemet students in the shop. They headed to a table upstairs, while James and Tim took orders.

"One at a time," James said, waving his arms around. Tim pulled out some money.

"Stuff it. You should know what they like by now," he said to James. They took off down the stairs. Ron picked up the container that held sugar packs. He also played around with the straw dispenser. Hermione fought the urge to slap his hand away.

"We come here every Wednesday afternoon," Siobhan explained to them "sometimes we go to a different suburb, but we usually can't be bothered."

"I wish they had better shops around here," Eleanor sighed "we could've gone shopping."

Lawrence rolled his eyes "That's all you ever think about, isn't it?"

Eleanor ignored him and continued speaking "it's lucky we're going this Saturday. I'll show you all the good shops in the city Hermione."

"Oh great. We're going to spend the weekend on a shopping spree. Count me out," Tim said approaching. He took a seat and tapped his hand on the table, gesturing for James to hurry up.James looked as if he was having a bit of trouble with balancing all the coffee cups.

"You know, a little help might be good," he said loudly. Unfortunately for them, Stella just happened to be in Gloria Jeans as well. She immediately came over to the group, and began to pass around their coffee cups. James tried to hide his annoyance, but instantly forgot about it the moment she squeezed over next to Tim.

"I warned you," Catalina said under her breath. Addressing the rest of the group, she put on a fake smile for Stella "we were just talking about you. Eleanor wanted to do some shopping, you know. She really wanted you to go with her." Eleanor snapped her head in Catalina's direction.

"What?" she asked stupidly.

"Come on Eleanor! Let's go already!" Stella said, almost tipping over the table as she stood up. Her hand brushed against Tim's and she smiled. Allen snickered.

"Go on Eleanor," he urged. She scowled at him, then was dragged out of Gloria Jeans by Stella. Allen smiled, "that was easier to do than I expected. Quicker too."

"Eleanor's going to be really angry," Hermione observed. They didn't stay too long in Gloria Jeans. Only five minutes after Eleanor was dragged away, they left. Hermione's mind was soon occupied with how to make the twins obedient. She bounced ideas off Harry and Ron all the way home. Harry didn't want to be in their place for anything.

lame ending. Sorry.


	8. Revenge

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello. Sorry again about the updating. Radish's poking stick must be getting blunt by now. This is also a short chapter, so sorry. Anyway, you'll find out what happened to the alarm clocks, although you might not think that it's very funny when you read Hermione's prank. It's what I'd do if that ever happened to me, and my friends know I have got no sense of humour whatsoever when it comes to pranks and jokes.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any of the HP characters, although the rest belong to moi.

* * *

It seemed that there was a lot of tension in the room. They were eating dinner. Hermione hadn't said a word since they arrived home. The twins were unaware of her silent smouldering, she hadn't confronted them directly. Yet. She looked at them through narrowed eyes. She was formulating a plan. Everything continued like that for the next few hours. They all finished dinner, and went into the living room. Harry took control of the remote and immediately began channel surfing.

"Hey Hermione, can I borrow those notes Eleanor gave you?" Ron asked. Hermione wordlessly passed them onto him. Fred raised an eyebrow.

"You've been awfully quiet Granger," he observed "something happen today?"

She just glared at him, but didn't say a word. When they all went to bed, she locked the door behind her. Harry went into Ron's room.

"You got any idea what's up with Hermione?" he asked. Ron shrugged.

"She's upset with the twins obviously," he replied "she's up to something." Harry nodded. He said goodnight to Ron and left his room, then he walked down the hallway to Hermione's room. Harry knocked lightly.

"Who is it?" Hermione called out.

"Harry."

"Oh right." There were sounds of movement, then Hermione opened the door. Harry looked past her. Nothing really seemed to be out of place. She stared at him expectantly. "So what do you want?"

"What are you doing?" Harry asked.

"Well homework, the usual," she replied, "why? What did you think I was doing?"

Harry shook his head "Oh nothing. I just thought, you know, that you'd get back at the twins or something. Never mind. Good night Hermione." He gave her a suspicious look, stretched and walked back up the hallway.

* * *

Hermione poked her head out the doorway. Ron and Harry were asleep, the twins were still up, playing around with some wizarding equipment she had specifically banned. Oh well, she'd deal with that later. She walked down the stairs, making sure she didn't make a sound. Turning a corner, she furtively looked behind her. No one was there. It was safe to continue. She walked into the living room and turned on the computer. It started up with a low humming sound. Hermione looked around again to see if anyone was behind her. She nodded and turned to face the computer, pulling out a small piece of paper at the same time. She logged into MSN and added all her new friends. Thankfully, Lawrence, Catalina, Eleanor, Tim and Siobhan were online. Hermione was immediately invited to a conversation.

Pink_Lady: hi herm!

ALleN EaTs POo: dat nik sounds gay... cant u just call her hermione?

Pink_Lady: ur display name sounds gay. ALleN EaTs POo? ya, he mite eat poo, but at least he can eat lyk a human.

OMG I HATE MR MASON: owned!

Melancholy Minstrel: we are still here you know...

Marshall-Law: yeh

OMG I HATE MR MASON!: heya hermione watcha doin on dis late?

Hermione_G: Plotting revenge. Anyone want to help?

ALleN EaTs POo: u dun seem lyk da revenge type

OMG I HATE MR MASON!: u dun hav a brain ur always rong at judging ppl

ALleN EaTs POo: god... jes one simple comment nd u get agro. u girls r so touchy

Pink_Lady: OI!

Hermione_G: so does anyone want to help?

ALleN EaTs POo: i think she means u

OMG I HATE MR MASON!: me?

ALleN EaTs POo: not u. ur 2 dum, soz

Melancholy Minstrel: that's enough tim. don't make me send over another virus. anyway, hermione,this has something to do with rons bros. and this morning doesn't it?

Hermione_G: yes. Is it possible to replace an alarm clock bell with a recording?

Hermione had to wait a bit for an answer

Melancholy Minstrel: depends. what are you using? if you want a revenge recording, i'd use microsoft sam on your computer. his voice can be monotomous. comical and efficient when the correct phrase is used.

Marshall-Law: yeh. but u have to smooth out his voice and set frequencies and stuff.

Pink_Lady: culd u spare da rest of us from da jargon? i bet siobhan and tim are sleeping already.

Hermione_G: well they should. It's 10. ok so what do i do?

Marshall-Law: record the voice. then... argh, its too much to type and i have to get off soon. stupid MAT. catalina can help u

Melancholy Minstrel: I have to get off soon too

Hermione_G: could i call you, or you call me?

Melancholy Minstrel: we'll do a three way chat. i won't be able to sleep for a while and i have to log off anyway. whats your number hermione? i'll call in three seconds.

ALleN EaTs POo: u guys r so nice. ditch us.

Marshall-Law: well, u did say that u didn't want to listen to us.

OMG I HATE MR MASON!: dat was elle actually.

Pink_Lady: dun blame dis on moi. omg! that reminds me. i forgot about wat u did to me dis afternoon! dun any of u dare leave!

ALleN EaTs POo**: **k, im goin. dun want to get grilled

ALleN EaTs POo has left the convo

OMG I HATE MR MASON! has left the convo

Pink_Lady: dun u dare

Marshall-Law: sorri. hav to help a friend.

Marshall-Law has left the convo

Melancholy Minstrel: Lecture us tomorrow when we're all there Elle. but you can have the joy of lecturing those other two.

OMG I HATE MR MASON! has been invited to the convo

ALleN EaTs POo has been invited to the convo

Melancholy Minstrel has left the convo

Hermione_G: Good night Eleanor

Hermione_G has left the convo.

Hermione shut down the computer and picked up the phone. She went into the backyard, to make sure that no one would hear the ringing. She hadn't even settled on the swing, when Catalina's voice came through the phone.

"Hey Hermione. Lawrence is here too. So what exactly did you plan?"

"Okay. Here's what I want to do..." she explained her plan and heard Lawrence chuckle.

"Woah. So spiteful Granger, didn't know you had it in you," he said.

"We'll guide you through it," Catalina told her "Electronics is fun. Now listen carefully..."

* * *

"Fred, George, I know why you played the prank."

The twins turned and looked at Hermione, who was standing in their doorway. It was 10.30. She pulled out the two alarm clocks that she'd refused to give them the day before. They regarded her with suspicion.

"I'm sorry. So could you please stop giving me hell?" she asked. George nodded.

"No hard feelings Granger," Fred said "you know our pranks are compltely harmless". He thought that something was wrong. He'd expected a lecture at the very least. George inspected his alarm clock. No harm seemed to be done. He gave Fred a little nod.

"Yeah, thanks Granger. Go to bed now," he commanded. A look of annoyance flashed over Hermione's face, but she just smiled and left the room.

Harry was having a dream. He was wandering around the corridors of Hogwarts, different people passed him and said hello. He missed Hogwarts a lot. He went to the Gryffindor common room, and climbed the stairs up to his dorm. He could picture the beds, the bright curtains, and the view of the Quidditch Pitch.

"FRED EATS POO. "

He rolled over and willed the voice to go away. Why must everyone interrupt good dreams?

"GEORGE LIKES TO WEAR WOMEN'S CLOTHING!"

Harry suddenly awoke from the dream. He slipped on his glasses and looked around him. He could've sworn he heard a voice, a booming voice not so different to that in a Howler.

"FRED EATS POO. GEORGE LIKES TO WEAR WOMEN'S CLOTHING!"

That definitely was not a dream. He opened his door and went out into the hallway. Ron was already there. His expression mirrored Harry's. Utter confusion.

"FRED EATS POO. GEORGE LIKES TO WEAR WOMEN'S CLOTHING!"

It was coming from the twins' room. Both boys entered it. Fred was desperately trying to turn off the alarm clock, George was banging his on the bed head.

"I knew we shouldn't have trusted her!" Fred exclaimed exasperated, fumbling with the buttons. He flipped the 'off' switch. He nodded his head in satisfaction when it stopped momentarily. To his horror, the message became louder.

"FRED EATS POO! FRED EATS POO!"

"ARGH!" George screamed, throwing his out the door. It was caught by Hermione. She yawned and put a hand to her mouth. She was already dressed and ready for school. As if everything was normal, she entered the room.

"Good morning boys," she greeted, sitting on the edge of the bed. She gave Fred an evil little grin "Promise there'll be no more pranks concerning our waking and sleeping habits?"

"You're cruel Granger."

"I'll turn them off when you both promise."

"Never."

"FRED EATS POO. GEORGE LIKES TO WEAR WOMEN'S CLOTHING!"

"Never knew you had it in you Granger" George said "Turn it off and I won't ground you," she narrowed her eyes and flipped the switch. The volume increased "Ok ok ok. I promise." Fred glared at him, but eventually agreed. Hermione smiled in satisfaction and switched the alarm clocks off. George's was dented in various places.

"Come on boys. Let's get some breakfast. We've got a test today you know," she said sweetly. Harry and Ron trailed after her.

"Why didn't you get them to promise 'no pranks' full stop?" Harry asked.

Hermione shrugged, "they need to have a little fun once in a while. Compromise situation, if I'd suggested that, they wouldn't have agreed at all. Eventually, George would've destroyed the clocks, so I might as well get a deal out of it."

"They'll come up with worse than that," Ron muttered.

"They can try. I'm prepared now."

When they were all eating breakfast, Hermione's mood had changed completely. She had her nose in a maths text book, hurriedly eating her sandwich. Ron rolled his eyes, but read over her shoulder anyway. You couldn't be sure what useless things muggles could come up with. Harry was deep in thought. What would this test be like? It was going to be something entirely new. Australian schools were different from British ones. They didn't speak a word as they left the house.

* * *

The trio entered the school. They looked around for their friends, and found them being yelled at by Eleanor. Siobhan looked past the raving girl at them. She grimaced when Eleanor start waving her arms around and snapping her fingers. Catalina perked up when she saw Hermione approaching.

"So? Did it work well?" she asked.

"Did it work at all?" Lawrence added, noticing them coming toward over. Ron looked from one, to the other.

"They knew about this?" he asked surprised.

"Knew about what?" James queried, coming over to them.

"I am still here you know!" Eleanor exclaimed.

Hermione put her hands up for quiet, "Shh! I'll tell you all about it." She explained what happened, and Lawrence and Catalina did a Hi-5. The bell rang, which reminded Hermione that they had a test. Before she could ask anything, the deputy principal came onto the playground with a mega phone.

"Year 7s! Line up in your roll call classes. Quickly and quietly. CASSIUS MOAB! GET RID OF THAT SPRAY CAN!" The students lined up in their classes, then they were then marched into the hall, which was set up for the MAT exam. "Quickly!" the deputy continued, waving his arms around "Stay in alphabetical order and sit down when you get to your desk!" Harry found himself staring at the back of Allen's head. He was somewhere in the middle of the hall, Hermione was near the entrance and Ron was over on the other side of the hall. Once everyone was seated, the deputy climbed the stairs to the stage. He tapped the microphone and cleared his throat. "You all know the drill. No cheating, no talking. Fill in your name in capitals, where it says to, the school code and regional codes are on the board. Colour in the bubbles to the questions, do NOT use pen, and make sure that all mistakes are clearly erased. Don't go onto the next part of the test until you are told to. You will be given magazines for part three of the test; it contains graphs etc, related to the questions. You now have time to fill in the first page."

Ron scanned the page quickly. This was a weird test, he hoped it had none of the pro numerals that explained in the last math lesson. He had been assured that there was nothing of the sort, but then again, you could never be sure. He spent a few minutes reading over the questions. What year was he born, how many years had he been in Australia. What a strange test, and this was only the first page. He had barely finished filling in the bubbles, when the deputy issued the next instruction.

"Pencils down, turn over. Begin the practise questions DO NOT begin the acutal test until told to do so," he said. There was the noise of pages flipping, then quiet once again. Ron looked down at the page. The practise questions were easy enough to any normal person, but Ron was home educated, and adding numbers over 500 wasn't really necessary for him. Again, he'd barely finished when the deputy ordered them to stop. They went through the answers, then began the actual test. Ron slowly, but steadily worked his way through the test. It was lucky the section was multiple choice, some of the concepts there he'd never even heard of. Who knew what the formula for calculating volume was? His eyes wandered across the room and settled on Hermione. She wasn't having much difficulty, but she wasn't breezing through it either. After twenty minutes, they were allowed a break. The students headed outside into the quadrangle.

"What did you get for that last question?" Eleanor asked as soon as they were all outside "I didn't really get it."

Catalina groaned "Please, we're supposed to be having a break from it right? Let's not talk about it."

"I reckon it's weird," Ron said to Harry. They'd never actually sat an exam like this before. Hermione was talking animatedly with Lawrence and Eleanor, who wanted to discuss the test. The rest of them settled for handball. After forty minutes, they were called back into the hall once second part of the test was written calculations. Ron gave up trying, and just ended up putting in estimates. He wouldn't be there to receive the results anyway. They were given another break, this time it was only fifteen minutes, before doing the third part of the test. A plastic sheet with a ruler, grid and protractor was handed out. Ron flicked the paper around. It made a weird noise. People were beginning to stare. He stopped flicking the paper and got on with the test. Finally, after twenty minutes, it was over. Teachers came around to collect the test papers, and they were dismissed. Just in time for lunch.

"That was so tedious," Catalina yawned "I hate these tests, although missing out on class is ok.

"The EAT is on in two weeks," Allen reminded her. She shrugged.

"I prefer the EAT to the MAT," she replied.

"Let me guess," Hermione said "English Assessment Task?"

Siobhan gave a nod "yeah. Not so hard to guess. They should come up with better anagrams."

"Who really cares," James mumbled. He turned to Ron "you're so lucky you're not here for the EAT. Stupid writing tasks. They said that it contains poetry." Unluckily for him, Dana was passing by. She heard this comment, went up to James, and hit him on the back of the head.

"What is wrong with you?" she asked.

"I've a right to my own opinion," James retorted, "and I think poetry is dumb." Dana gasped, and James made an arrogant face "so go shove it up your bum!"

"Ooo. Rhyme," Tim commented. Dana glowered at James. Eleanor hit him on the back of the head.

"You're such an idiot sometimes," she told him. Dana shrugged and left. Lunch was soon over, for their last two periods, they had double science. Nothing much interesting happened after that. The next day came and went, not much excitement there either. Their first week of muggle school was over, only two more left.

* * *

Heh. For those of you who are Australian high school students, then you may know of the ELLA and SNAP tests. I really disliked them, although like Catalina, I was ok on missing out on school. Anyway, just to let everyone else know, I'm really bad at endings, so please don't criticise, I've admitted my problem.


	9. A Weekend Out

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**: Aha! I am back after... two months, was it? I didn't get my target of 40 reviews sigh And you'll probably throw rotten vegetables at me now for four reasons (yes, the number of DEATH)

1. This isn't a very good chapter

2. I didn't take this chapter as seriously as I should have

3. It's quite a disappointing effort after two months absence

4. This chapter shows I'm starting to lose interest in the story (I really don't like people who lose interest in their own stories. I guess that can be another reason. Hypocrisy!)

But yeah, I know most of you will have forgotten about me already. I'll do my best for the next chapter

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Harry Potter! I never will! Yes, I was sugar high when I wrote this. Hehehe.

"Come on you two! Get a move on, we'll be late if you don't hurry up!"

Harry, Ron and Hermione waited impatiently at the door. It was their first weekend out, and they'd agreed to meet their friends at the train station. Hermione kept glancing at her watch "Okay, that's it we're leaving without you!" she called up the stairs.

"Oh no you don't" one of the twins called back "we're your guardians, you must do as we say!" After a few minutes, both the twins came down the stairs, wearing the exact same clothing. Hermione scowled, but refrained from passing any comments. Ron eagerly opened the door.

"Let's go! I want to see the train!" he said excitedly. He'd heard from James that the trains were different, and that they'd run on elekticity. Harry nodded and stepped outside the door, but then he felt a hand on his back.

"We're the guardians, we go first" George announced. Hermione scoffed.

"You're guardians, not royalty, now move it" she said, pushing George out the door. Fred gave Hermione a haughty look, but followed suit anyway.

"Now, little slaves, lead on!" Fred said grandly. Harry sighed and the five of them headed to the train station. Hermione bought their tickets and they headed down to the platform. They were obviously late, as all their friends were there, including Lawrence.

"I was the first one here you know," he told them "I was actually _early _for once. I'm never coming early again."

"We missed the train already" Catalina explained "he's always like that when he misses the train, so don't mind him"

"But it's another twenty minutes until the next one!" Lawrence groaned.

"Which means twenty minutes bonding time!" Fred said to the group. They all noticed the twins for the first time. "Well Ronnikins, aren't you going to introduce us to your little friends?" Ron's head drooped and Eleanor raised an eyebrow.

"Ronnikins?" she queried "is it ok if we call you that now?"

"No." Ron replied flatly.

"Anyway," Harry said loudly "everyone, this is Fred and George."

"Pleased to meet you" the twins said, simultaneously bowing. Siobhan gave a little smile.

"Identical Twins eh? Pleased to meet you too" she said, looking them up and down. Tim sighed.

"Stop checking them out" he told her.

"I was not!" she denied, blushing. Allen frowned, staring at the twins as well.

"Whatever you say" Tim said shrugging. "Allen, you stop checking them out."

"You're gay Tim" Allen retorted "I was just wondering-"

"Wow, you can actually think!" James exclaimed dramatically.

"No, seriously" Allen said, staring at the twins "which one of you is Fred and which one of you is George? You're wearing the exact same clothing." The twins chuckled, then George stepped forward.

"I'm Fred" he said, then he pointed to his brother "and he's George."

"All right" Catalina smiled. She pointed to George, then to Fred "You're George. You're Fred." Harry was impressed. She could actually tell the two apart.

"No little girl, you're mistaken" Fred said, "I'm George, he's Fred."

"Whatevever, we'll just call you two twin one and two" Lawrence interjected. "I'm Lawrence," he then began to point out each of his friends "that's James, Tim, Eleanor, Allen, Catalina and Siobhan." At that moment, there was a loud _whooshing _sound, and the train pulled up to the platform. It was certainly different, and clean by even Sydney train standards.

"Oh lucky for you guys" James said cheerily "you've never taken the train here before, have you? Well, this model is one of the Millenium ones. They're pretty new and no one's managed to deface them yet." They all went onto the train. Harry looked around him; yello text flashed across a black LCD sign board, the seats were blue and cushy, and the windows were very clear. Unlike the Hogwarts Express, there were three levels, one going up, one down, and the one they were standing on.

"There aren't many people on this train," Catalina observed "it's good we decided to go in the morning. So which one do you want to go on? Up or down."

"Up. Duh" Siobhan said. They climbed up the stairs, where it was practically empty, except for two people. They turned around a few seats and sat down.

"So, what are we going to do today?" Ron asked.

"Well, we're going to just hang out around the city." Eleanor said simply "It's too bad we're not old enough to do the Bridge climb. We would've done that. We'll just show you the landmarks and stuff, and Catalina wants to bring us all to the Powerhouse Museum."

"A museum?" Harry asked, incredulous.

"It's not an ordinary museum" Allen replied "it's got all this interactive stuff."

"We won't be spending the whole day there, we have other stuff to show you guys as well" Tim added.

"Could we go to the Powerhouse first though?" Catalina asked "I have to get home early."

"Why?" Ron asked. Hermione nudged him.

"No it's ok" Catalina said "I have to take care of my siblings. My parents have to work tonight."

"You never told us you had siblings" Harry said. Lawrence grinned.

"She's got two younger siblings. Boy and girl. And they're twins."

Siobhan sighed "They're really cute."

"They're little brats!" Eleanor exclaimed "whenever I come over, they pull my hair." Tim chuckled, and pulled one of Eleanor's curls. She glared at him then slapped him on the back of the head.

"My brothers can look after them if you want" Lawrence suggested. Catalina laughed.

"Oh please! Your brothers are a bad influence"

"Really now... Explain."

Catalina breathed in and checked them off her fingers "Ok one, the toothpaste on the toilet seat"

"Haha I remember that!" Tim said grinning "I copied that one and Allen sat down."

"His fart smelled fresh" James added. They all turned to look at him.

"That's... disgusting" Hermione said quietly.

"It burned! Toothpaste _burns!_" Allen moaned. Siobhan giggled.

"Your siblings also passed off beer as apple juice" Eleanor said to Lawrence.

"Alcohol is just fermented vegetables" Harry told them. He wondered where he'd actually come up with that one.

"Oh yes. The beer," Siobhan glared at Lawrence "That was just stupid"

He raised his hands in defence "Hey, don't blame me. I'm not the one who comes up with them."

"Your brothers have good pranks" Allen said. Fred and George shared a look, then started chuckling. Eleanor raised an eyebrow.

"What's so funny?" she asked. Fred and George simultaneously shook their heads.

"You muggles are such amateurs!" Fred exclaimed. Ron looked at him in horror, Harry groaned, but Hermione just rolled her eyes. Lawrence gave the twins an appraising glance.

"What's a muggle?" he queried quietly. Fred realised his mistake and shrugged.

"Must've been a Freudan Slip" Catalina said, glaring at Lawrence. Hermione noticed that the girl gave Lawrence a slight kick while pretending to sit up in her seat (oh sorry! These seats are so close together). Luckily, the others hadn't noticed Fred's odd word.

"We're amateurs eh?" Tim said in a challenging tone "what's the best you've come up with?"

"Your feeble minds wouldn't be able to comprehend our Prankster Greatness" George said dramatically.

"Don't encourage him Tim" Ron sighed "because then I become the test subject"

"Aw... Poor Ronnikins has had enough" Fred said, pinching Ron's cheek "Don't worry little brother. We could always try it on someone else."

"Like Percy" George suggested.

"Or Ginny"

"And it would be a challenge to get Bill"

"Nah, Charlie would be a much better target."

"I presume you're referring to your siblings?" Catalina observed. Siobhan let out a low whistle.

"Seven siblings. Nice number" she said. Before they could discuss the topic of siblings and pranks any further, the train stopped at Town Hall.

"This is our stop" Eleanor said, grinning. They all alighted from the train and headed off to their first destination. The Powerhouse Museum.

"Oh move it, I want a turn!"

* * *

"Shove off!"

Harry watched in amusement as James and Allen fought over one of the interactive exhibitions at the powerhouse. First it was the chocolate machine, then it was the pendulums. Now, it was the fire engine. The twins had contented themselves with playing with the elevator, barring certain people from accessing it. It was a wonder they hadn't been kicked out of the museum yet.

"Ok children" Catalina announced, doing a teacher impersonation "line up in twos. We'll be leaving now." Harry had to drag Ron and Hermione away from some of the museum artefacts. Siobhan had only been too happy to leave.

"That was boring" she said, trudging behind Catalina. Eleanor looked around her.

"Ron, your brothers and Tim are still in the elevator" she pointed out. The group headed over to the lift. It wasn't one of those metal, closed elevators. You could see into it. Tim waved at them, making strange gestures and being a mime. The twins were still refusing people access to the elevator, pretending to hold open doors then pressing the close button.

"Honestly" Hermione muttered, coming over to the elevator entrance. After much 'negotiating' and getting stuck between the doors, the three finally agreed to come out of the cubicle. The next stop was the Pedal Boat. We shan't go into details. Let's just say that a few people came home sopping wet (said people were Hermione, Ron, Allen and Tim). Catalina left just before they decided to check out a prank shop, which was lucky for her. The twins ended up making fools of the group.

"Ok. You are the Prankster Kings" Tim admitted "now will you tell me how to get this goo off my pants? It looks like I just laid a dump." (Any guesses as to what the twins used on him?)

"That doesn't look like it came from this shop, Tim" Lawrence said. "It should wash off in any case." Harry wondered what the twins were playing at, bringing wizarding prank material and using it in a muggle area.

"You better make sure you didn't leave anything" Ron muttered to George on their way out. "Hermione will chuck a fit."

"Oh who cares what Granger thinks?" Fred said "she can't beat us at our own game. I'll admit, the alarm clock thing was clever, but she won't have any bright ideas like that"

Hermione was miffed, to say the least, but she would get her revenge. The rest of the day was decidedly not interesting enough to note down here, so I will take this oppurtunity to shut up.


	10. Another ordinary day

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, I'm back with a faster update! This one's just a bit of a filler, I think I'm going to be done with this story soon. There should be only... seven or eight chapters left after this one. Oh wait, that's not almost finished. Whatever. There's a rather long MSN conversation in this one, I apologise if it's too lengthy. It wasn't supposed to turn out like that but oh well. My aim for reviews is 50! So give me seven more reviews please.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Harry Potter!

* * *

Ron walked out of the bathroom, running a hand through his hair. It was early Sunday morning, a strange, disgusting smell had roused him to consciousness. He went downstairs and saw Hermione kneeling before the fireplace. Harry was already there, rubbing his eyes and putting on his glasses. Ron sent him an enquiring glance, but Harry just shrugged in return.

"Hermione, what are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Um...Burning something."

"I hope she's burning the homework."

"Haha Ron. Really funny. No, I'm not burning homework. Take another guess if you like."

Harry and Ron shared a glance, as they watched Hermione heap another small sack onto the fire. It sparked off a little, then smoke arose from the sack. The stench became stronger (just imagine burning dung bombs, or very smelly poo) filled the room and Hermione gagged.

"Oh ugh. Maybe I should've waited a bit longer." She muttered. Ron held his nose.

"Would you like to tell us what you're doing now?" he asked. She waved her hand through the air, fanning away the smell.

"Harry, could you get the air freshener from the bathroom?" Hermione said, pointing down the hall " And as to what I'm doing, I'm taking care of-"

"HERMIONE GRANGER!" Two voices yelled in unison. A moment later, Fred and George came bounding down the stairs. Fred stopped at the bottom and his mouth dropped open. He quickly closed it when he smelt the stench wafting from the fireplace.

"You, young lady, are GROUNDED!" George said loudly, pointing a finger at Hermione. She didn't say anything as she put another sack defiantly onto the burning coals.

"On what grounds?" Hermione asked calmly, prodding the sack with a poker. Fred scowled.

"You know very well 'on what grounds'!" he said angrily "what gives you the right to burn our stuff?"

Hermione stood up and rounded on the twins "What gives me the right? You were told NOT to bring any wizarding equipment on this trip! Therefore, you've broken with the contract and I can dispose of the said wizarding equipment as I wish!"

"But that's not even funny. You didn't even get rid of them with a prank" George muttered "You could've done something like the alarm clock thing at least."

"Well I've had enough of pranks" Hermione snapped "I wouldn't have minded if you used _muggle _things for pranks-"

"Muggle jokes are so primitive" Fred sighed "They're still using those... fart balloons for goodness sake!"

"They're called whoppee cushions" Harry said helpfully.

"Whoppee cushions may be primitive, but at least they don't get DUNG on the back of people's pants!" The twins winced.

"I guess she noticed after all" Ron observed. George shrugged.

"All right then Hermione. We'll stop using wizarding items for our pranks."

"But the pranks will never stop." Fred said loudly. "We will find better ways to go around your strict and non humorous rules!" And with that, the twins headed off into the ktichen. Hermione sighed and put the last sack of prank material into the fire.

"You guys go make breakfast, I'll get this place smelling normal again" she told Ron and Harry. They nodded and went off to join the twins.

* * *

Apart from the usual humorous incidents in the trio's cosy little friendship group, the school hours during Monday and Tuesday were rather uneventful, his classes were just plain boring. Harry guessed this was because he lacked the motivation to excel in his subjects. What was the point, when they'd only be staying for three weeks anyway? It wasn't as though he'd made this bet. Still, he managed to get decent work done in class. They were already at home, Ron sitting at the table doing some math exercises.

"I reckon this algebra is really useless" he muttered.

Hermione looked up from her homework stared at him "Then why are you having so much difficulty with it?"

"I didn't say it was easy" Ron retorted, putting down his pencil "Muggles like to make things harder than they actually are. And this Pythagoras person Miss Allet said we're doing. He had way too much time on his hands. Who comes up with a theory like that anyway?"

"You've only got the math questions left." Harry told him optimistically. Hermione shook her head.

"Did you two complete that homework assignment for Mr Reeve?" she asked. They stared at her incredulously "I guess that's a no then."

"When's it due?" Harry asked.

"Tomorrow" Hermione replied "I've just finished mine."

"What were we supposed to do?" Ron said, looking over her shoulder. She hastily grabbed the paper from off the table and folded it in her lap.

"Two poems of different styles, and an analysis on _The Highway Man_. Maximum twenty words for the poems, minimum five. The analysis has to be one page maximum."

"Gosh Hermione..." Harry muttered. Ron rolled his eyes and tried to snatch Hermione's assignment again.

"Just what did you do for it then?" he asked her.

She stood from the table and began climbing the stairs."I completed the task, like he asked me to. I did two pages, so I hope he deson't mind..."

"Can I take a look?"

"No Ron. That's the whole reason we're here. Still think that what muggles learn is easy? You're not allowed to have any help from me."

"Then what am I supposed to do!" Ron demanded "I didn't learn all these things that you muggles have. I'm at a disadvantage here!" Hermione stopped at the top of the stairs.

"Well I suggest you think like a muggle then," she said, walking off to her room. Ron hit his head against the table.

"Lot of help she is" he muttered darkly. "Think like a muggle. Psch! Harry, what exactly is an analysis? I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing."

Harry shook his head "I don't really know either, we only wrote poems," he admitted. "But Hermione told us to think like muggles, right? I'd ask for help at this point."

"That's no good" Ron replied "I asked for help and she just ignored me."

"We can always ask other people for help." Harry said. Ron's eyes widened.

"Oh yeah! We can use that thing on the computers. Allen showed it to me in Technology today."

"MSN you mean?"

"Yeah, that's it. Let's go do that now." The boys went off to the computer, both pulling up a seat each. They turned on the computer and went onto the internet. Unluckily for Hermione, she left MSN Messenger on automatic sign in. Ron looked at the contact list in confusion.

"How do we know who's who?" he asked. Harry shrugged.

"Knowing Hermione, she's got their names up somewhere." They logged into her inbox, and found that she indeed had a list of which contact was who.

"Oh look! An incoming message." Ron pointed out as a small blue window popped onto the screen.

Pink_Lady: hey hermione!

STELLA STOP STALKING ME!: hi

Hermione_G: this isn't hermione. this is ron and harry

Melancholy Minstrel: Oh. Ok. So did you two hi jack her account or something?

Hermione_G: na. it signed in by itself

Pink_Lady: woah. dat's freaky. oh not u guys. Law, James, Allen nd Siobhan jus signed in at da same time.

Marshall-Law has been added to the conversatoin

James has been added to the conversation

HAHA! sucked in tim has been added to the conversation

2pretty4u has been added to the conversation

Melancholy Minstrel: Lovely. Now we're all here. Except for Hermione, who is probably unaware that you two are on at the moment.

Marshall-Law: so it's ron and harry on herm's acc? or those twins

STELLA STOP STALKING ME!: allen, you are so getting it tomorrow. oh yeh ron. dat stuff ur bros made me sit on stinks like crap. wat is it.

HAHA! sucked in tim: uh... crap?

STELLA STOP STALKING ME!: u shut up. unless u wan to be bashed 2morrw

HAHA! sucked in tim: u jus try

"Perfect" Ron said gleefully to Harry "More people to help us."

2pretty4u: so wats everi1 doin?

Hermione_G: trying to figure out what to do with that assignment mr reeve gave us

James: wat r u havin problems wit?

Hermione_G: what are we supposed to do? what's an analysis?

2pretty4u: u just have to write about how that dude uses poetic devices and how they're effective.

Pink_Lady: dun u have the notes i gave you?

Hermione_G: ye. where do i find that poem?

Marshall-Law: you should be able to find it anywhere on the net

Pink_Lady: nd dana nd catalina know it off by hart

Hermione_G: we still dont get how we're supposed to do this. could we read one of yours?

STELLA STOP STALKING ME!: we could jes invite dana.

James: oh don't...

Melancholy Minstrel: ooo. Scared James?

James: shut up.

HAHA! sucked in tim: well i guess i'll invite her. it wuldnt hurt 2 c wat the poetry nerd has to say.

Love is like war; easy to begin but hard to end has been added to the conversation

2pretty4u: hi dana.

Love is like war; easy to begin but hard to end: who are the other people here?

Marshall-Law: well, there's me, eleanor, james, catalina, tim, allen, siobhan and harry and ron are on hermione granger's account

Love is like war; easy to begin but hard to end: oh. ok. so why am i here?

James: de new guys have neva done a poetry analysis before. good 4 them. their skools in england must be smart.

STELLA STOP STALKING ME!: do u _want _to get murdered?

HAHA! sucked in tim: yeh. stop trying to provoke her

2pretty4u: like u can tlk

Pink_Lady: yes allen. it's all you ever do. piss us off

HAHA! sucked in tim: u ppl r such nice friends

Love is like war; easy to begin but hard to end: i'm still here...

Marshall-Law: of course we're nice friends! if you don't like us, there's always stella and adam

HAHA! sucked in tim: oh u shut up

Hermione_G: yeah tim, what's up with your display name

STELLA STOP STALKING ME!: guess. she took the same bus as me

HAHA! sucked in tim: heaps of ppl take the same bus as u

STELLA STOP STALKING ME!: dude, she lives on the opposite end of town to me!

Love is like war; easy to begin but hard to end: The wind was a torrent of darkness, among the gusty trees...

James: u know where she lives?

Pink_Lady:...

Marshall-Law: so what? she takes the same bus as you. big deal

STELLA STOP STALKING ME!: i woz sellin choccies at da station wit my sis, and she cums up to buy chocolate from us

Melancholy Minstrel: The moon a ghostly galleon, tossed upon cloudy seas...

Marshall-Law: isn't that a good thing? she bought from your fundraiser after all...

2pretty4u: seems lyk ur defending stella

Marshall-Law: just being realistic. the world doesn't revolve around you tim.

Love is like war; easy to begin but hard to end: the road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor

Melancholy Minstrel: the road was a ribbon of moonlight, over the purple moor

STELLA STOP STALKING ME!: says u law. but seriously, she's been poppin up everywhere

HAHA! sucked in tim: learn to deal.

Hermione_G: hey, a little help please

James: oh right. soz. i'll send mine over

Another conversation window appeared on the screen. The words _accept file _were printed in bold in the box. Harry clicked the link and the transfer immediately began. Ron watched the green bar load with excitement.

"I know wizards don't need these muggle things, but they're a lot quicker" Ron observed "Owls wouldn't be needed with this type of stuff. Imagine, I wouldn't have to put up with sending letters through Errol."

"Mmm" Harry agreed. The green bar filled and the words _Load complete _came up on the screen.

"Well, I guess we can get out of this MSN thing now." Ron said. The conversation was still moving quite rapidly.

Melancholy Minstrel: and the highway man came riding...

Pink_Lady: how cum u didnt ask herm for help harry?

Hermione_G: she wuldnt help. weve got a bet running

Love is like war; easy to begin but hard to end: riding, riding

Melancholy Minstrel: The Highway Man came riding, up to the old inn door.

James: oh would u 2 stop reciting that poem! we've alreadi got double english on friday.

Love is like war; easy to begin but hard to end: you're such a prat James

Love is like war; easy to begin but hard to end has left the conversation

Pink_Lady: look wat u've dun james

HAHA! sucked in tim: yeh

Hermione_G: we better go start on this. thanx for a look at urs james

James: no problem

Stella Norringlan has been added to the conversation

STELLA STOP STALKING ME!: ALLEN YOU LOSER!

2pretty4u has left the conversation

Stella Norringlan: tim, wats up with your display name?

Allen, you're a dead man tomorrow: nothing

Pink_Lady: oh please. Stella, stop stalking tim. he doesn't lyk u. its jus a big misunderstanding

Stella Norringlan: i don't believe you

Melancholy Minstrel: I think I'm going to avoid this lover's spat

Melancholy Minstrel has left the conversation

Pink_Lady has left the conversation

James has left the conversation

Marshall-Law has left the conversation

HAHA! sucked in tim has left the conversation

Hermione_G has left the conversation

Harry shook his head and looked at Ron "I feel so sorry for Tim."

"He's probably going to grill us tomorrow" Ron pointed out.

"Well, we better get started on this poetry thing"

"Yeah."

* * *

"Come on! No stopping! Pace yourselves!" Mr Mason screamed at the students. It was Wednesday morning, second period of practical P.E; they were running two laps around the oval for cross country. Lawrence was way ahead of everyone else, Siobhan was at the back and they were all scattered around the edges of the field. Harry was keeping pace with Tim and James.

"To - think" James said between breaths "we'll - end - up - doing - four - laps - of - this"

"High school is so cruel" Tim agreed, huffing. Harry adjusted his glasses and looked around the field.

"What's the distance of two laps in this place?" he asked.

"Around - seven hundred - metres" James replied. He slowed down and stopped behind a tree, hands on knees, where Mr Mason wouldn't catch him. "Gosh I hate doing this." At that moment, Eleanor came running past. She pushed James over, and he fell forward.

"Cheer up!" She called as she overtook Harry and Tim "The Walkathon is tomorrow. This is _nothing _compared to that."

"She just wants to make us feel bad, doesn't she?" Tim muttered.

"I'll make you feel bad if you don't stop yakking Mr Grent! Talking wastes energy while running!" Mr Mason yelled "I saw you stop as well Mr Li! Don't think you can get awa- DANA ERINE AND LISA MAREZZI! THIS IS CROSS COUNTRY, NOT RING AROUND A ROSY! STOP LINKING HANDS AND KEEP RUNNING!" He ran up to the two girls and promptly began lecturing. Soon, everyone finished the two laps, and the field was strewn with panting students.

"I'm quite disappointed with some of the times you people got, not to mention behaviour," Mr Mason said, glaring at some of the students "Exercise is important, and I'm betting half of you just get up, walk to your cars, and think that's an effort! Well, it's not. I hope you people get better times next week. Some of you got acceptable times, which you should be proud of. Now collect your things and head back to school." The class stood up, muttering and laughing as they walked back to school. Harry looked around for Ron and Hermione. They'd been behind him during the laps. He found them at the bubblers. Ron's face was as red as a tomato and Hermione's hair was going everywhere.

"I never knew muggles had to do that" Ron said, wiping his mouth with his arm. Hermione stepped away from the bubbler and shrugged.

"Some schools have worse than this" she told Ron "so you better not complain."

"Eleanor mentioned something about a Walkathon tomorrow" Harry murmmured. Lawrence came up to them from behind and clapped Ron on the back.

"That's right. Ten km's of non stop walking!" he grinned.

Ron groaned "Who comes up with these ideas?"

"I heard from the seniors that the Walkathon is cool" Allen said, joining them. "We walk ten km's to this beach where they set up stalls and stuff. There are all these fun activities supposedly."

"Anything is better than cross country!" they heard Siobhan exclaim from behind "at least we don't have to run the whole way there!"

"Yeah, I guess so." Catalina replied "We better hurry up and get to the change rooms. I don't want to be marked absent for roll call." They quickly headed back to the school. After roll call was recess, followed by English. Mr Reeve made the students line up in alphabetical order to hand in their assignments.

"You should see how many times his facial expression changes" Siobhan commented to Hermione "It's hilarious. You could make it into a slide show, and call it 'The Many Moods of a Teacher'" the line progressed and Hermione came to the front. She was wearing a confident expression as she handed her work in. Mr Reeve simply frowned at the stapled pages and beckoned for the line to continue moving. When all the assignments were collected, they were told to sit down and do some work. The group talked casually all throughout English, Technology and P.E. Lunch passed as did double language. The students were finally released for the day. They strolled around Pemet then headed for Gloria Jeans. Harry was surprised when he saw Siobhan and Catalina remove green cards from their bags.

"What are those?" he asked.

"Our walkathon sponsorship cards" Siobhan replied "We're going to ask around for sponsors. I've raised the most money out of our grade; I'm sure of it."

Ron's eyes widened "Do we need to do that too?"

"Of course, the teachers will chase you up if you have a blank card" Allen said. Eleanor rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry you guys" she said reassuringly "you shouldn't have to, you've only been here a week and you're leaving the next."

"Just make sure to buy something at the stalls" James added. Lawrence strolled over to them, carrying their orders along with Hermione. He took one look at Siobhan and snorted.

"Siob, you know that _no one _raises over a hundred dollars." Lawrence told her "No one really tries and it's probably a sucky prize for highest raiser anyway"

"Show a little school spirit Law" Catalina said, standing "besides, it's a good cause. And I know that your brothers were the ones who told you that."

"They were right though"

"Still... like Catalina said, it's a good cause" Siobhan replied. And with that, the two girls stood and left to harrass people for sponsorships. Tim snickered, turning his head back to the group, then he froze. His eyes widened and he sank lower into his chair. Allen looked at him in confusion.

"What the heck is up with you?" he queried. Tim groaned in exasperation and motioned for Allen to stay still.

"Don't move. She won't see me then. NO! Don't look behind you!"

"Really Tim" Eleanor scolded "whatever you see can't be that bad" she turned around, spotted Stella at the window and kept right on turning.

"Why don't you just tell her you don't like her and get it over with? It's not like she can do anything except cry and run off." Hermione pointed out.

"Plus, she'll leave us alone forever!" James said excitedly. "Go on Tim, go confront her." Tim glared at all of them, but stood up and went outside. The others watched as the two students stood out on the street. No sound could be heard, they were just talking. Then, Stella started raising her voice and so did Tim.

"THEN WHY DID YOU SAY YOU LOVED ME?" Stella screamed. Tim's face became red.

"I DIDN'T! JAMES DID!"

"Oh great. He just had to mention me" James muttered.

"WELL I DON'T CARE"

"STELLA! JUST GET LOST AND STOP STALKING ME OR I'LL TAKE OUT A RESTRAINING ORDER!" Tim yelled loudly. Passers by watched on in surprise and mild amusement, the people sitting closer to the cafe exit were silent. Stella looked at Tim in a horrified sort of way, before running off. Tim took a deep breath in, then noticed all the people staring. He guiltily looked down and headed back into the cafe. Cassius Moab called out to Tim as he passed by.

"Dude, break ups are always hard," he said cheekily. Tim rolled his eyes and returned to his seat. The group were silent for a moment.

"Wasn't so bad." Eleanor said calmly, taking a sip from her hot chocolate "Good riddance if you ask me."

"Yup, good riddance," Allen agreed happily. "Now who's up for more cake?"


	11. The Walkathon

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **Yup, I'm back! I am not going to apologise for the update rate (since you've probably forgotten me already). I'll try to squeeze in two more chapters these holidays, and I'll spend more time on editing. I didn't bother editing much before since I get little time on the computer, but yeah, it's been brought to my attention that my grammatical errors are quite frequent.

Oh and in reply to that review about my 'lingo'. Yes, my use of vocabulary is strange and I do call people by their last names sometimes. Guess that makes me an old person XD

One last thing before I leave you to read this.

This chapter isn't one of my best, but there are HEAVY hints in this chapter about the twist I'm making later in the story. Just to warn you again that I might be breaking the rules in the books.

Have fun reading AND REVIEW!

Pemet High School was filled with excited chatter of students. Each year group had been assigned a place to stay, before they were directed by a teacher to begin the Walkathon. Harry, Ron and Hermione entered the school and sought out their friends.

"Ah! There you are!" Eleanor exclaimed across the quad. She beckoned them over and they sat down. "Lawrence is late as usual, and Catalina had caught a ride with him this morning."

"Did you bring any food?" Tim asked, holding a bag of potato chips. Siobhan went through her bag.

"Hey, I bought a packet of- _Tim!_ That was for later! What is wrong with you!" she scolded, snatching the potato chips away. James pulled an MP3 player out from his pocket and offered Ron a headphone. Ron gave him a puzzled look and James laughed.

"Oh. I forgot you lived in the secluded country," he said "this is an MP3. You listen to music on it." Ron accepted the headphone after a wary glance at Harry. "Siobhan's probably going to win that iPod for the fundraising prize. Maybe I should've made an effort too."

"Argh! When are we leaving!" Allen moaned, pacing around.

Lawrence popped up behind him. "We're second last. We won't get the good spots," Tim shrugged.

"Hey Catalina..." he started. Catalina grinned at him.

"Yes Timothy, I've brought the picnic mat, the Cola, some lollies and cookies. I'm sorry, but Callum stole the Pringles."

"Callum?" Hermione enquired.

"My brother," Lawrence replied. Mr Mason strode into the quad and blew his whistle. There was immediate silence, then the Year 7s gathered around the teacher.

"Take those earphones out of your ears Mr Li and Mr Weasley!" Mr Mason barked, "No one will be listening to portable music devices during the walk. It is for your own safety. There are only a few things to keep in mind. Mr Moab, I can see you. Stop trying to impersonate me. Anyway, as I was saying. You shall move efficiently at the pedestrian crossings and traffic lights. Keep in mind that you are not the only people in the world; other people use the footpaths. Be on your best behaviour, just because you are out of school uniform it does _not _mean you don't represent our school. You shall _not _take any detours; there will be teachers stationed at regular checkpoints to make sure you don't dawdle either. Stay in groups and try to keep up. Folllow Ms Allet now." Their math teacher waved and they went after her. Siobhan rolled her eyes.

"I think he should be teaching at a military camp, not a school," she commented.

"All sport teachers are like that though," Allen replied. They walked on as a group for a while, passing many people and chatting to other students. After crossing at two traffic lights, Ron sighed.

"I'm bored. How much further to go?"

Catalina giggled, "Ron, we haven't even made a kilometres distance, let alone ten!"

"What are we supposed to do for the next nine point whatever kilometres then?" Harry asked.

Eleanor's face lit up "We could tell horror stories..."

"Horror stories," James snorted.

"Well, why not?" Hermione shot back, "who wants to go first?"

"I will," Eleanor said smiling.

"Oh look what you've done Hermione," Tim groaned, "Eleanor's stories suck."

"They do not!" Eleanor muttered defensively. "Now shut up and let me start. Okay so there's like, this girl."

"Oh scary scary," Allen murmured sarcastically.

Eleanor ignored him. "She'd never been left alone in the house before. One night, her parents were attending some fancy function, so they told her to keep the dog in her room. If it licked her and it's tongue was warm, then everything was all right. But if it's tongue was cold, then something was wrong."

"That's gross," Siobhan said, wrinkling her nose.

"Well duh, horror stories are meant to be disgusting," Lawrence pointed out. "Like the House of Wax, and the Grudge, when she goes up to the attic and she sees all the bones-"

"Okay, we get the point," Eleanor said loudly, "let me continue. So the girl did what her parents told her to. She locked up the house before she went to bed. The dog licked her foot and it was warm. As she got into bed, she heard this dripping noise. So she got up to check all the taps. After she did that, she went back to bed. The dog licked her foot and it was warm. She tried to go to sleep, but she could still hear the drip, drip, drip. She got up again to check the house, but all the taps seemed fine. She returned to her room and the dog licked her foot. This time it was cold. Frightened, she turned on the light and-"

"AGHH!"

A few students and some random pedestrians turned to the source of the sound. Siobhan clutched at the back of her shirt and glared at Tim and James, who were trying to supress laughter. Mr Mason came running up to them.

"What's going on here Miss Hever? Did you hurt yourself?" he asked. Siobhan gave a weak smile to the teacher and the people who were staring.

"No Mr Mason. I... I thought I saw a spider," she responded. Mr Mason raised his eyebrows incredulously, then turned on his heel and muttered something about women and arachnaphobia. As soon as he was out of earshot, Siobhan turned on Tim and began whacking him with her bag.

"Gosh Siobhan," he said, grinning. "It was only cold water."

"You-" whack, "idiot-" whack, "that-scared-the-sh-"

"Come on Siobhan, it wasn't that bad," James said. She rounded on him and began delivering the same punishment she gave to Tim.

"Shouldn't we do something?" Hermione asked, biting her lip.

Catalina nodded, "Oh yes. Eleanor, please finish off the story."

"They've ruined the mood," Harry said, jerking his head towards Siobhan, Tim and James. Eleanor shrugged.

"Who cares," she said. "So where was I up to?"

"The girl turned on the light," Ron prompted.

"Oh yeah. So the girl turns on the light and gasps in horror. From the ceiling hangs the dog, its red blood steadily going drip, drip, drip onto the floor beside the girl's bed. The girl screams and turns around, then she sees what's on her mirror." Eleanor paused for maximum effect before continuing, "written in blood, the message, 'people can lick too, darling' was scrawled across the mirror."

"Then..." Lawrence urged on.

"Then what?" Eleanor queried.

"Then what happened? Did she get murdered? Did she get butchered?"

"I don't know," Eleanor replied. "So who wants to go next?" No one volunteered, so Eleanor told another story, then another.

"Gosh Elle," Allen moaned, "can you shut up now? That's already what, five stories?"

"Three," Hermione corrected.

"Whatever. It's getting boring."

Catalina shrugged, "You guys, we're moving too slow. Can we walk faster?" When no one answered, she let out a sigh and began power walking.

"Oi Catalina! Wait up!" Lawrence called, increasing his speed as well. Eleanor didn't seem to notice their departure.

"Ok, so what story should I tell next?" she asked, "the one about the haunted house or the wizards."

Ron's head snapped up, "Tell the one about the wizards." Eleanor nodded and immediately launched into another horror tale. Harry sighed and looked around, noticing that Siobhan, Tim and James were no where to be seen.

"Is Siobhan still bashing up the boys?" he asked.

"Probably," Hermione replied. "I better go check on them," she fell behind as Eleanor just went right on talking. A few of the other students had come to listen to her; they were taking up the pathway. Harry covered up a yawn and went ahead to join Catalina and Lawrence.

* * *

"Oh hi Harry," Catalina greeted as he drew up alongside them. They'd managed to put a fair distance behind them and the rest of the group, they were practically tailing the Year Nines. "Is Eleanor still telling stories?"

Harry smiled. "Yeah. She's attracted a bigger audience."

"Bet she's loving that," Lawrence murmured dryly. "I don't suppose you have any cool British horror stories to tell us?"

Harry thought of the mystery of the wizarding world and smiled, "No, not really."

"Shame," Catalina sighed, "the Woman in White horror story was pretty good."

"Oi! Retards!"

Harry looked behind for the person who'd called out, but there was no one there. He turned around again and almost jumped when he saw a tall boy in front of him, walking backwards.

"You're such a polite boy Callum," Catalina said icily. The boy grinned.

Lawrence coughed. "Harry, this is my older brother Callum."

"Pleased to meet you," Callum said, extending his hand. "It's wonderful to see you in the flesh Mr. Potter."

"Uh... you too," Harry replied.

Callum winked, "You really should come over some time. The rents would love to have a chat with you, so would Matt and Liam. And sometimes Catalina brings over the twins. I bet they'd love an autograph-"

"Shut up, Callum," Lawrence interrupted nonchalantly, but his brother didn't seem to have heard him.

"And your two friends can come over as well, Hermione and Ron. Those are their names, right? Catalina's been more talkative ever since you guys have arrived, it's Harry this, or Hermione that, or Ron's siblings are-"

"Callum, if you keep walking backwards, you're going to trip over some time," Catalina pointed out, "besides, you're slowing us down."

Callum rolled his eyes, "Gosh _Cat_, you're such a prude sometimes. Let me make up for 'slowing you down'." And with that, he picked her up bodily and started walking ahead. Harry glanced at Lawrence.

"Your brother seems like an... interesting person," he said a little awkwardly.

"Oh aye. Sorry about him," Lawrence apologised, "he freaks people out most of the time." They watched as Catalina beat her arms against Callum's back.

"You guys seem pretty close," Harry observed.

"Who? Callum and I? Mate, that's an insult."

"No, I mean your family and Catalina's."

A fleeting smile flashed across Lawrence's face. "Yeah. Our families are pretty close. Our mothers went to school together and everything. Catalina comes over all the time with Mickey and Jade. The twins."

"Put me down!" Catalina shrilled, "or I'll-"

"You'll what? Crack me over the head with one of your textbooks?" Callum baited.

"They don't really seem to get along though," Harry remarked.

Lawrence laughed, "That's an understatement. She's hated him ever since he taught the twins to say 'Catalina is a nerd'. Although, I do reckon Callum likes her." They walked on for a few minutes longer; Catalina stopped thrashing about and instead began sifting through the contents of Callum's bag without his awareness. She triumphantly pulled out the Pringles and his wallet.

"Hey look, she's saved our Pringles," Lawrence said. He held out his hands and Catalina threw the Pringles back. Lawrence quickly stuffed the food into his backpack and put on an innocent face.

"Geez woman, you're heavy," Callum said. He dropped Catalina onto the ground and turned, waving at Harry and his brother. "See you later bro! Nice meeting you Harry." Then he ran to overtake the Year Nines. Catalina stood, rubbing her backside.

"Are you ok?" Harry asked.

Catalina grinned in return and held up the wallet. "Yup. Hey Lawrence, here's the solution to your financial difficulties."

* * *

"And she was burned at the stake. They say you can hear her screams and wails in the night, and you know what? They never found her wand."

Eleanor's audience was silent, jumping at the teeniest sounds and merest movements. She'd been telling stories non stop and Ron was getting bored. The last story had been completely crazy.

"Muggles," he muttered, shaking his head. "Weirdest stereotypes of wizards."

"What did you say, Ron?" Eleanor asked.

"If she was a real witch, then she wouldn't have been burned," he said sceptically.

"Haven't you studied history at all?" Dana queried, "they burned witches."

"Yeah, and there were all those tests for witches. Like the ordeal by water and everything," Lisa added.

"Yeah, but if she was a real witch, she would've escaped," Ron insisted.

Allen shrugged, "Witches don't exist. Wizards don't exist. Eleanor's stories are all a load of crap."

"Tell another one!" Cassius called out. The rest of the students agreed and Eleanor beamed.

"All right. This one is really, really good. There was once an all powerful wizard named Lo-"

"Eleanor, why don't you just save it for camp?" Allen said, exasperated.

Eleanor frowned, "You're right, that one needs to be told at night. Ah well, I'll tell another one."

"Gosh, do we seriously have to endure this for the rest of the Walkathon?" Allen murmured to Ron. Ron nodded in agreement. If he had to listen to another strange, completely silly, muggle story about the magical world, he'd explode.

* * *

"I can't make it any further!"

"Siobhan, I'm sure that-"

"SHUT UP JAMES! MY FEET ARE KILLING ME!"

Tim passed Siobhan a bottle of water. "We're coming along the beach now. Law told me that that means we're close."

"Can't-make-it," Siobhan muttered. She buckled at the knees and Hermione winced.

"You guys, a littlte help here," she said, supporting Siobhan. "We can go find Mr Mason-"

"No! It's ok, I'm fine," Siobhan assured them. She began walking at an excruciatingly slow pace. She managed to walk another ten paces before collapsing again.

"Ok you guys, come on, help," Hermione said. Tim muttered something unintelligable, but went over to help. James sighed.

"We should get you running around the block in the morning or something Elle," he said, supporting her from the other side.

"Just shut up and let's go," she muttered.

* * *

Harry, Catalina and Lawrence reached the end of the Walkathon. There were seniors stamping the sponsorship cards, and random Year Twelves in strange costumes.

"Don't forget to enter the pie contest at one o'clock!" a senior girl said through a megaphone, "you can chuck pies at Mr Mason and the deputies!"

"Bet Siobhan would love to enter that," Lawrence said. "We better get these sponsorship cards stamped so we can get a good spot."

"Crap," Catalina muttered, looking through her bag. "Siobhan has my sponsorship card." She gave Harry and Lawrence an apologetic look. "Sorry guys, I'm going to have to wait for her. Go ahead and find a spot."

"Do you want me to bring the picnic mat?" Lawrence asked. Catalina nodded and proffered the rolled up mat.

"I can wait with you Catalina," Harry offered, "I'm still waiting on Ron and Hermione."

"Sure. Make sure you get a good spot and don't surrender the Pringles!" Catalina called to Lawrence. He grinned and went through the throng of students getting their cards stamped. Ten minutes later, Eleanor, Ron and Allen showed up with Eleanor's audience.

"Finally!" Allen exclaimed, running towards them. "She talked non stop for the whole thing."

"I had to listen to a morning full of stories of muggle views on wizards," Ron whispered to Harry.

"Those were really good," Dana told Eleanor.

"Thanks," she replied, grinning, "I think I'll stop now. But I'll have more ready for camp!"

"Thank goodness the boys and girls aren't in the same cabins," Allen muttered.

Harry looked around, "Hey Ron, where's Hermione?"

"I don't know. Last I saw, she went to catch up with Siobhan," Ron replied.

Catalina groaned, "Knowing Siobhan, she's probably going to be last. Lawrence has gone ahead, so you guys can go find him."

"Sure," Eleanor said cheerily, "come on Allen, let's go."

"I think I'll wait for Hermione," Ron said, standing next to Harry. After another fifteen minutes, the last of the group arrived. It was a little amusing to see Siobhan, red in the face and being supported by three people.

"Are you ok Siobh?" Catalina queried.

"You should be asking _me _that," James said. "When Lawrence said that coming along the beach meant that we were close, I thought he meant we were only a few metres away!"

"Food," Tim groaned, slumping to the ground. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Can you walk by yourself Siobhan? Ok, good," she headed over to the seniors who were stamping the cards. "So where is everyone else?"

"They went to find a good spot," Catalina answered, taking her sponsorship card from Siobhan's back pack. "Cheer up Siobh, there's the pie throwing contest and Mr Mason is a contestant."

Siobhan smirked, "Great."

They looked around for Lawrence, Allen and Eleanor. They found them sitting in the shade and sprawled across Catalina's picnic rug.

"Food!" Tim sighed, sinking to his knees and opening up the Pringles. They all sat down for a rest, except for Catalina, who threw off her shoes and headed down to the beach.

"How can you keep walking around after almost two hours straight of walking?" Siobhan asked.

"It's not everyday we get to see the beach," Catalina yelled back.

"Let's go check out the stalls," James said, beckoning for his friends to follow. Everyone got up except for Tim, who was devouring everything in sight. The seniors had set up a number of stalls and activities. There was a water slide, stalls with food, stalls selling jewellry and a fairy floss machine. After buying a few things and a go in the pie contest ("Oh yeah! Take that Mr Mason!" Siobhan screamed, right before Allen pied her in the face), they headed down to the beach and built a sand castle. All too soon, the day was over and they began boarding the bus.


	12. A day of tensions

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow. I haven't updated for three months. Well anyway, I hit finally 50 reviews for this story (may be meagre to some of you, but I really appreciate it), so here's a new chapter. Again, the humour is running dry but it seemed a little important to me to write it like this. Aiming for 60 reviews this time. I will update as soon as I reach that target, or until I feel like updating.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Harry Potter or his friends.

The sun shone relentlessly through the window of Room 13 at Pemet High, and the wizarding trio and their fellow students were enduring yet another of Mr Reeve's word derivation lectures. Hermione seemed to be the only student listening; Harry was sleeping, Catalina and Ron were flicking pencil sharpenings at each other, and the rest of the group had a wild, caged sort of hunted look to them. Mr Reeve cleared his throat and picked up a pile of paper off his desk. Hermione nudged Harry awake.

"I've marked your poetry assignments," he rambled, zig zagging past desks and handing back assignments. "I must say that it was a bit of a disappointment."

"Sounds like something Mr Mason would say," Siobhan muttered.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that Siobhan," Mr Reeve said, handing Hermione back her assignment. "If there are any problems, see me at the end of the lesson. Last five minutes. Pack up and chat quietly."

Tim scoffed. "Like anyone would want to see him at the end of the lesson. Who'd want to cut short their lunch talk to a teacher?"

"_What_?" Hermione hissed. Tim was taken aback.

"I said, who'd want to-"

"Not that you dimwit," Eleanor rolled her eyes. "I think Herm is talk about her assignment."

"What's wrong Hermione?" Ron asked, looking at her assignment. She quickly snatched it out of the way and scowled.

"I don't believe this," she muttered. "How could I have gotten sixteen out of twenty?"

Allen laughed. "That's all right Hermione. I mean, some people here only got thirteen. Not mentioning any names. James."

"Shut up," James retorted, stuffing his assignment into his bag.

"Maybe you got some of the analysis wrong," Eleanor suggested. "May I have a look?"

Hermione wordlessly passed the assignment to Eleanor, who let out a long whistle. "I reckon this is pretty deep analysis. It's got everything, really detailed."

"Maybe _too _detailed," Lawrence offered.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked.

"They're really fastidious here Hermione," Catalina said, almost apologetically. "The limit was one page. You went onto two. You might've gotten an nineteen out of twenty for the general analysis, and three marks were probably deducted for length."

"I don't need a know it all like you telling me what I did wrong," Hermione snapped angrily. There was a sudden awkward silence, then the bell rang. Standing up, Hermione slung her bag over her shoulder. "I'm going to go see Mr Reeve," she mumbled. "I'll see you guys outside." There was a collective grunt of assent and the rest of the group went to lunch.

"Don't worry about it Catalina," Ron said, patting her on the back. "She'll get over it."

"What's up with Hermione anyway?" Lawrence asked. "I mean, it's only one assignment. And sixteen out of twenty is around the class average."

Harry shrugged. "Hermione gets full marks. For everything. Back in England, she's our top student. Anything that's not a perfect mark is a catastrophe for her."

"Yeah well, it did seem like a bit of an over reaction to me," Siobhan commented.

James groaned. "Get over it, will you? It's just a stupid poetry thing. Besides, Hermione will probably apologise to Catalina after she goes to see Mr Reeve."

* * *

Hermione approached Mr Reeve, smouldering. She waited for him to look up from his Sudoku.

"Ah. Hermione Granger isn't it?" he asked, putting aside his pen. "What's up?"

Hermione put down the assignment. "Sir, I'd like to know why I got a sixteen out of twenty, despite all the comments about how my analysis is mature."

Mr Reeve sighed. "It is very mature, but it wavered off the topic in a few places. You would've lost just one mark had that been the case. But my restriction was one page maximum. You did double that. There's a reason why I set the limit to one page only. You have to learn to express your ideas articulately in the set restrictions. I took off three marks for length."

"I see," Hermione scowled. It didn't help that Catalina had been right. "I'll try to correct that for next time. Thank you Mr Reeve." She turned on her heel and left the classroom.

* * *

Art took up the final two periods of the day. Hermione was still on edge, but everyone did their best to overlook that. Ms Reicher gave the students strict instructions, then left the room. All the students were up to the painting stage of their pictures, except for Lawrence who seemed to be finished. He sat at the desk, annoying everyone and talking non stop.

"Okay," Tim said in exasperation. "If you do not stop singing 'ninety nine bottles of beer on the wall', I will shove my paintbrush where the sun don't shine."

"How very original of you Tim," Lawrence goaded. "I'd invite you to do it, I'm that bored."

Harry looked out from behind his easel. "Sit still Lawrence, I'm not done yet. And if you're finished, do you mind showing us your great masterpiece?"

Lawrence jumped up from the desk and clutched his work to his stomach. "No one is seeing this until I give my say so. And I don't understand how that will help quench my boredom."

"Cheer up Law," Catalina said, waving around her paintbrush. "Why don't you count down the hours until camp?"

"SIXTEEN HOURS AND TEN MINUTES UNTIL CAMP!" Allen exclaimed. "I can't wait."

Siobhan sighed. "I wish they had electricity there."

"I think the whole purpose of camp is that there is no electricity Siobh," James pointed out.

Ron frowned. "So what are we going to be doing there?"

Eleanor glanced at him incredulously. "Haven't you ever been to camp?"

"We went to boarding school in England," Hermione said. "We've never been to camp."

"Woah, unlucky," Catalina murmured, slathering blue paint on her picture. "Well, we do actvities like archery and swimming and group initiative courses where we all work as a team. There's also trivia night and giant swings and canoeing."

"And," added Eleanor, "it's the perfect oppurtunity for horror stories. Of course, you guys will miss out because girls and guys are in separate dorms."

Allen looked heavenward. "Thank goodness for that. I swear, if I had to listen to another of your stories, I'd go mad."

"You're already mad Allen," Lawrence said flatly. "The most insane person I know. You can't go past the superlative."

"I don't think he got that," Tim muttered.

Eleanor scowled. "I don't get why you're teasing my story telling abilities Allen. I had a huge crowd during the walkathon."

"Oh please," Ron scoffed. "Those wizarding stories you were telling? Those were crazy."

"Here we go again," Harry said under his breath.

"They were not crazy," Eleanor retorted. "I doubt you could come up with any better. Besides, I have a really REALLY good one ready for camp. I based it on something Jade and Mickey told me."

"Which means it indirectly came from Catalina," Tim observed.

Eleanor sent him a withering look. "It'll reach you boys eventually, since everyone will be repeating it. It'll be that good."

Lawrence laughed. "Horror stories on wizards? I'd have to agree with Ron and Allen on this. I don't really think that your stories are that good Elle."

"What's wrong with horror stories involving wizards?" Eleanor demanded.

"Nothing." Lawrence put down his art and picked up a paintbrush. Or rather, a thin wooden rod resembling a paintbrush. He stood on his chair and started waving it around. "Ooooo. I'm a scary wizard. I'm going to cast a spell on you!"

"Wow, that's basically what happens in all your stories Elle," Allen snickered.

"Hey, he's left his art unattended," Harry said. "Provide distraction!"

"I think not Harry," Lawrence said, jumping down from his chair. Lawrence waved around the rod and moved towards Harry. It seemed so quick, before Harry had even reached out to grasp the paper, it was safely in Lawrence's grasp.

"Like I said," he told them, "no one sees this work until I give my say so."

Catalina glared at Lawrence. "That's dangerous Law. You shouldn't wave things around like that. You might take someone's eye out."

"Oh relax," Lawrence muttered, putting down the rod. The period passed quickly and the students were released for the day. As soon as the trio exited the building and they were in the car, Harry turned to Hermione.

"So what was up with you in English today?" he asked. "I mean, I know that you didn't get full marks, but-"

"Can we not talk about it?" Hermione interrupted, going through her things.

"Did you apologise to Catalina?" Ron asked.

"We're not talking about this." Hermione said in a dangerous tone. The boys decided to drop the topic and they were silent for the rest of the ride. When they arrived home, they were called into the living room by the twins.

"Sit down, sit down," George said loftily. The trio exchanged glances, before sitting on the couch.

"You might be wondering why we've called this group meeting," Fred began, "you are going to camp tomorrow, at Clarric Valley, correct?"

Hermione eyed them warily. "Yes... you're not coming if that's what you want."

"Hardly," Fred said dryly. "George and I did originally intend to come."

"But in the end we decided, you're not going," George finished.

"_What!_" Ron exclaimed, jumping up. "Are you serious?"

"If this is a prank, it's not very funny," Harry agreed.

George shook his head. "We're completely serious."

"Alright," Hermione said disbelievingly. "And why can't we go?"

"We've done our research," Fred said. "It turns out, that there's an experimental creature site right next to where you're camping. Sort of like a zoo. They harbor creatures there like hippogriffs, kappas, lycanthropes, kelpies. It would be dangerous to allow you to go."

"But muggles go there every year!" Ron protested.

Hermione nodded. "Ron's right. And don't think that you're the only ones who can research. I found out the same thing, but they've got rangers and facilities. How do you supposed they've kept it secret from the muggles?"

Fred and George exchanged a look. "You're not going."

"You can't just stop us," Harry said, getting up. "We're going whether you like it or not. Besides, we can look after ourselves."

"We won't wander anywhere near there," Ron added.

Fred sighed. "Fine. Go. But bring your wands. I'm sure Hermione will allow you to bend the rules this one instant."

"Of course," Hermione said tartly. "Well, come on you two. We should check we've packed everything and get to sleep." As the three headed up the stairs, Hermione turned back to the twins. "I never thought you two had it in you to be worried. We'll call every day."


End file.
